Letter from Senator

[Whatznext 2]

I wrote my senator and received a wonderful reply how he would check into my case and let the Embassy know he has interest in this case. LOL what a joke after a 3 week wait I received a response it looked like a copy of the email I received from the Embassy .........application has been temporarily suspended under section 221(g) of the United States Immigration and Nationality Act and is subject to a necessary administrative processing....

The funny thing is I copied the exact statement on my letter to him. He never answered the specific questions I asked. The closing statement was the same as the Embassy Sorry we can not offer a more favorable response. Such a generic letter what a dissappointment. If this is the normal response people get it's not worth the stamp . Did anyone else get this generic letter or did you get a more personal reply? Oh well my husband and myself have resolved our self to a long long wait anything under a year or two will be a surprise. Life gets to be depressing if you let the AP become the main factor in your life. The ray of hope I will get is when I see Tammy's husband have is visa in hand.

[payxibka 10,047]

I think the thing that must be understood is that the eleced representatives (Senators and Congresspeople) cannot get a visa/petition approved whose application/petition is not yet approvable. They can inquire as to status, they can even sometimes get an expedite (for cause), but they cannot get the DOS or USCIS to circumvent the process.... Sometimes they can assist in removing "roadblocks," many times they cannot....

[Whatznext 2]

thanks for your input but I never asked for an approval. My husband can wait his turn just like everyone else. The point is he never read the letter only gave me a generic response regarding the status of my case I already knew that and told him the status in the letter I asked about transfering my case if my husband visa expires before the AP was done but we took care of that without his help. No problem we are settled in for the long wait. LOL you read like the senator!!!!!!!!

[tammy2688 1]

Oh jeez I love to be mentioned as the example now lol. Ya its not a good place to be...i think my case is just about one of the most pathetique cases there is so you guys please dont think it'll happen to you...this is rare. most NORMAL cases get out within 6 months.

Ya i got the same generic message several times so dont fret. they do read the letters but they can only go so far as the embassy replies them so if the embassy decides to ignore that question then the senator has nothing to do.

i guess we just have to keep in this waiting game till these government agencies feel they are ready to issue these visas

sending my prayers to you and i hope for good news soon

tam

[WonTanNara 0]

There are a few things your Senator can help with, at least mine has. After our interview, the officer could (or would) not tell us anything other than I'm sorry, this requires further administrative processing. I asked her what does that mean, and I asked her in every way I could think of but the answer was the same. Further administrative processing. I now know that could mean so many different things from document verification to relationship verification to security clearance.

I contacted Senator Leahy's office and I also had to wait about 3 weeks for them to do the inquiry. The first thing they did was send an inquiry to the embassy. The embassy's response indicated that our relationship had been verified, all of our paperwork was in order, and they are awaiting security clearance from Washington. After that, Leahy's office sent an inquiry to the DOS and I too got the form letter. We are very sorry for the inconvenience, but your fiance's case must undergo mandatory security procedures, blah blah blah...

So why heck couldn't they tell us that after the interview as we were both standing there in utter disbelief? My Senator's office said because consulates are very closed-mouthed about their processes. No kidding?

Another note, we had our interview April 29th and the DOS did not receive our case until May 24th, so don't be surprised if it takes a few weeks for your case to show up in Washington after the interview.

Now, Senator Leahy's office does a monthly status check for us with their DOS liason. For a while I was calling the DOS every week as well and eventually asked the question, so what exactly is the next thing you see after AP is complete? I've asked more than one person this question and they always say "visa issued." Well, that would mean the case has been sent back to the embassy, the embassy has contacted my fiance, processed his case to conclusion, and he has his visa in his hand. Is there no other update or status change that you can see in between AP and visa issued? The answer has been, from more than one person, "Well it depends on the person entering the notes." So there are no consistency standards? No kidding!

After I discovered this I asked Leahy's office, "When your DOS liason does a status check, can she see if the security checks are complete and if the case has been sent back to the embassy?" The answer was yes. So, I've stopped calling the DOS and am relying on these monthly status updates from my Senator's office.

Best wishes to everyone and may we all be reunited soon.

[emt103c 10]

You will get a better reply sometimes if you talk one on one with the immigration liaison themselves on the phone. . .the have to send the generic letter, but sometimes they will give you more information when you are on the phone with them because there is no paper trail. Also, the more you convince them you already know (liaison and DOS) the more they will tell you.

When the checks are completed IT WILL show up on the DOS screen, now, whether or not the crappy operator will tell you is another story. . .they have more information than they like to share. . .if you happen on a chatty operator, chat them up, see what you can discover, it worked for me several times. . .I got the information that the AP in hubby's case was over from the DOS operator.

[S and S 12]

My congresswoman's office contacted Dos and it took time, but they figured out my husband's case had been sent to some office in Houston along with many other Iraqis. Naturally they sent his case over there not too long before the hurricane hit so then the office was closed for three weeks. My congresswoman's office couldn't get through and now they finally got the inquiry put in, but there is still no response to even tell us what the status of his background checks are. This process really is frustrating!

[tammy2688 1]

I got it out of them too I mean i been working in them for quite some time! (DOS) I got case complete too then embassy says its not...Can't believe them either. Chris from DOS is right - you know AP is done when you got visa in hand thats it. Some operators can say its done just to get you off their back. But after a REASONABLE amount of time, they should give you the "case complete" status and it should be in truth, complete. The embassies are pretty good about letting the applicant know at that point. every false alarm "complete" status for my husband we heard from the embassy within 2-3 days so i dont doubt at least that they hold cases after they are truly done. Now just getting them truly done, that's the hard part. I dont know how they will handle the 2008/09 cases when they have backlogs from 2006 - that just baffles me.

[emt103c 10]

Because you know they don't do them in order. Fairness is not part of their equation. . . sad system.

[S and S 12]

Because you know they don't do them in order. Fairness is not part of their equation. . . sad system.

You definitely have that right!

[tammy2688 1]

Dont know whether to laugh or cry...maybe both - together...in no particular order.