A few months ago, I wrote about a K-1 fiancé visa case of mine that was impossible to move forward and where repeated requests for information and clarity went nowhere. (See The pitfalls of the K-1 fiance visa: Consular nonreviewability.)
A recent episode of National Public Radio’s This American Life illustrates this same frustrating experience perfectly. The show put up a web page providing the email correspondence between an Iraqi interpreter for the U.S. government and the U.S. immigration office handling his case. In the end, the applicant was killed before his employment with the U.S. government was verified to the (impossible standard of) satisfaction of the agency. You have to read it to believe it: This American Life – Taking Names.