Help request - denied to to "similar name on watchlist"

[dorn 0]

Hi all,

I'm posting this in hope to find out what may be the best step to proceed. After a year and a half of having my wife's I-129f and I-130 application sitting in a "pending" status. I learned from my lawyer today that her application is not being approved due to her name being "similar to a person on a watch list".

My lawyer is appealing through AILA and recommended that I consult my congressman as well. I'd like to find out if anyone else has a recommendation on where to take this. We're pretty devastated since of course there's NO information available about what list, what name, etc.

Any advise is appreciated, this is just unbelievable.

Regards.

[reeses16 8]

I don't have any advice to offer. I didn't think they would deny a person because of a similar name. I figured the approval would take longer because they would actually interview, finger print, and further investigate the person.

I'm re-reading your post. You said her status is pending because of the name. Sounds like your case is in Administrative Processing (AP) not denied.

[notime4haterz 0]

That makes no sense...sure, they would take forever to verify if it's the person they're looking for... but as the above poster said, once they get fingerprints, photos, and double check everything, how can they deny it??? Unless your spouse is the actual person on a watch list...and if they are, you need to find out why!

[azer_2000 1]

well the way I see that application is not denied, it's just name checks are taking too long. There are couple people here who had there applications pending for over 2 years. But eventually it got approved if everything is ok. And from what I understood, they have tried calling and contacted, congressman, but that didn't help. they just been waiting for name checks to be complete.

I was put on name check also, but only a month ago. And as of right now they say it will take 3 months. But i don't believe that, especially after your story. So if you could share with us your experience in little more detaile, give us your timeline and steps you've done so far with their outcomes, me and few others who are on name checks over here would appreciate that.

Thanks and good luck

Edited December 4, 2008 by azer_2000

[andreea 0]

This name thing is totaly wierd to me. Ive seen other cases here with the same problem. having similar name with someone on a watch list...I think here for example (and I think is same in every place) there r some very common family names, that many many people have them. if u add to that the fact that many parents name their kids with a saint name, and those used are not many, at the end there r many ppl having the same name in their papers. so if one would be on a watch list, all the others would suffer? what about the rest of the data in their documents? the birth date, the birth place, names of their parents, the number of registration of their documents? those dont matter? lets say the person on the watch list has never been fingerprinted, photographed, an so on. still they must have some other data about them, no? otherwise why would put a name on a watchlist if u dont have any other information about the person,no? maybe i am wrong, but they must know more about a person than only the name to get on a watch list on the first place. besides, if ud be on a watch list only with yr name, wouldnt u change it? i mean, lets get serious here, sounds to me like this name on watch list is more like an excuse for them when they mess up some file, and this is the easiest unquestionable explanation to give. why arent u solving my file? u have a suspicious name. yeah, right. but truth is when u hear some non sense like that, u dont know where to go from there. and they r aware of that. is just my opinion.