Visa denial...what do we do now?

[Brenda233]

This is my first time posting. My fiance is from Ghana and I am in the US. We met over three years ago when I was on a trip to Ghana.
In mid December my fiance had his visa interview and was denied his fiance visa. The reason given was absolutely ridiculous. My fiance said that the man gave him less then 5 minutes of his time before he denied him.
The man asked my fiance about how we met and accused him of stabbing someone in the back because I had gone to Ghana to see someone else and then ended up meeting him and us getting together, ( there is much more to that story).
Then the interviewer asked him, how can he be attracted to me when I had been married before he was even born? (yes, I am twice his age, but age is just a number to us.) My fiance told him that age doesn't matter to us, and that we get along great and we love and understand each other.
The interviewer had seen in our texts that I had called my fiance, my husband, so he said that me calling him my husband had legal implications, and that it meant we were already married, and therefore he was no longer eligible for a fiance visa. We are not married, and it's common, especially in Ghana, for unmarried couples to call each other husband and wife.
So he was denied the visa and we were absolutely shocked. We had everything in order and were confident he would be given the visa. I'm sure this had more to do with our age difference and this mans personal feelings then anything else.
It's now been over 2 months and I still haven't received any official letter of denial so I can see what reason is stated, and I have been told we need this letter before we can even appeal.
So, my question is, does anyone have any advice for us on what we can do next? I can't afford to hire a lawyer and I feel so hopeless and helpless just sitting and waiting for this letter, that according to the US Embassy in Ghana, won't even get here in time to appeal, as stated on the paper they gave my fiance.

[Ejoriah]

If you go over to visajourney.com you might find better answers. As far as I can tell the most prevalent piece of advice on that site is to get married (in Ghana or a third country) and then apply for a spousal visa.

[Sparkling72]

Sounds like an awful story... sorry to hear you are going through this. How long do you have to wait before reapplying?

[Brenda233]

Thank you, I'll try that.
I've heard it was more difficult and cost more to apply for a spousal visa, but I have no idea if that's true, doesn't make sense if it is.

[Brenda233]

Thank you, it's been so hard but he's worth it.
I don't know, I think we have 4 months to appeal, but it's already been over 2 with no denial letter or explanation so we can appeal.
I know so little about this whole process and I'm getting so discouraged. All we want is to be together.

[Moon]

Getting a visa, especially from a country considered a "risk", which Ghana is, and having a huge age difference, is no joke, and you need to research it thoroughly. We've had many, many members over the years get denied under less suspicious circumstances than yours. This will not be easy, you have to be incredibly prepared, and just wanting to be together isn't enough. Age may only be a number to you personally, but it's a huge, huge red flag to an immigration official, and once you start doing your research, you'll see the difficulty it brings. I'm really sorry this happened to you, but you have access to the internet and google, you need to dig in and learn as much as possible about this process before you even think about appealing. If you appeal right now, you'll lose. Good luck.