90 Day Fiance: The Real Reason Jon Walters' Visa Got Denied
Watching "90 Day Fiance," it's easy to think that the K-1 visa process is always easy. After all, most couples who apply for the visa are approved and successfully bring their fiance's to the U.S. However, that certainly wasn't the case for "90 Day Fiance: Before the 90 Days" alums Jon and Rachel Walters. Not only did they run into some serious delays in their visa process, but they were also flat out denied visa approval at the U.S. Embassy.
Jon Walters was a 34-year-old native of England when he met his wife, Rachel Walters (née Bear) on, of all things, the karaoke app Smule. The two became acquainted and began a long-distance relationship, only for Rachel to find out soon after that she was pregnant with her ex-boyfriend's baby, Screen Rant reports. She already had daughter Ella from a previous relationship, but thankfully, Jon wasn't overwhelmed by the idea of Rachel being a mom. Sounds like the beginning of their happy ever after, right? Well, there was one major obstacle.
Problems abound for Jon's move to the United States
An unexpected pregnancy wasn't nearly as much of a hurdle for "90 Day Fiance" stars Jon and Rachel Walters as trying to secure his K-1 Visa so that he could move to New Mexico and finally settle down with Rachel, Ella, and her new little girl, Lucy, was. Jon and Rachel ran up against an immediate denial, to which they responded in a YouTube live session to let fans know that the outcome was apparently something that they expected.
Jon went on to explain the real reason his original visa application was denied. "Basically, it is like this. I have a criminal conviction. Now, when I went to the embassy, I took a load of paperwork, I took everything I thought I would need and I thought I would have the opportunity to ask for forgiveness," he said (via In Touch). Unfortunately for the couple, that wasn't the case. "So basically, it was a hard no from the embassy but it's not a hard no as far as our application cause they never saw our application, he didn't look at the details, didn't look at anything."
Rachel and Jon had expected their negative outcome and had already paid their lawyer, in advance, to file a waiver upon the denial, which happened soon after the embassy turned down Jon's visa application.
A past forgiven... maybe
Imagine dealing with all the baggage of a long-distance relationship between two different countries for three years only to be told you still can't be together on the same continent permanently. That's the reality for Jon and Rachel Walters. When questioning Jon's visa status, one may think an obvious answer is for Rachel and her daughter Lucy to move to England and settle down with Jon, right? Not a chance. "What sort of parents would we be if we created a family which put Ella on the outside?" Jon told In Touch. "We would never selfishly solve our problem by passing on the misery of missing your family on to a child."
The issue at hand is that Rachel isn't just a mother to Lucy, but also her oldest daughter, Ella. The mother of two is adamant about remaining in the U.S. for the sake of her oldest daughter. Per Rachel's Instagram feed, she "won't move to the U.K. because I share custody with my oldest daughter and I refuse to leave her behind."
So, as of August, no news is hopefully good news for the "90 Day Fiance: Before the 90 Days" stars who would very much like to be together on the U.S. side of the Atlantic. Only time will tell, but if fan support for the couple counted for anything, they'd be a shoo-in for visa approval.