When to contact the State Department?

[Jacq1018 0]

My husband's visa has been in AP for 6 weeks now in Caracas. I e-mailed the Embassy to check the status. Here is their response:

"As of this date, your husband's case is still pending administrative processing. We continue to check on the status of hsi case twice weekly. If you have not received a message from our office in two weeks from this date, please contact us to inquire as to the case status.

Thank you for mentioning your upcoming visit in December. It is not necessary for you to come to the Embassy, as Mr. Fortoul has provided ample evidence of your relationship."

My question is, who are they checking with twice weekly? The State Department? If so, do you think it would help if I call them?

Any feedback would be greatly appreciated

[emt103c 10]

My husband's visa has been in AP for 6 weeks now in Caracas. I e-mailed the Embassy to check the status. Here is their response:

"As of this date, your husband's case is still pending administrative processing. We continue to check on the status of hsi case twice weekly. If you have not received a message from our office in two weeks from this date, please contact us to inquire as to the case status.

Thank you for mentioning your upcoming visit in December. It is not necessary for you to come to the Embassy, as Mr. Fortoul has provided ample evidence of your relationship."

My question is, who are they checking with twice weekly? The State Department? If so, do you think it would help if I call them?

Any feedback would be greatly appreciated

Yes, they are checking with the Dept of State. It will not help for you to contact them, but I used to like to inquire with them instead of the Consulate. DOS gives you and immediate yes/no answer, whereas you have to wait for the embassy to respond.

DOS cannot speed up the checks they can only give you status. If after two months they have not cleared your checks, it might be helpful to go ahead and have Congressional or Senate Reps do inquiries on your case. Again, they cannot speed up your case, they are just kind of there to let the DOS know you are concerned and after excessive time they can sometimes help out.

Mostly they are just a comfort measure when it comes to AP.

Hopefully your case will be resolved quickly and you'll never have to worry about it.

In addition, Venezuela isn't one of the slower consulates with more complicated checks. I am fairly confident you won't have to wait very long.

[WonTanNara 0]

My fiance and I are into our 8th month of security checks. Our relationship is also verified and they do not require additional proof. If you have not confirmed this is the case for you, then you could ask your Senator to do an inquiry right now. I had my answer within a week. The people at the DOS can't tell you why your case is in AP, but your Senator's DOS liason can.

Nothing personal, but I disagree with those that predict a faster or less complicated AP based on country, at least for stateside security checks. Once a case is in security checks in Washington we are at the mercy of the agencies who need to do the checks. I've been told by Dakar that it's completely out of their hands. This is why I suggested that Jacq1018 do an inquiry now to find out why their case is in AP. Guinea shouldn't be all that complicated or slow either but here we are, 8 months later and still waiting...

The bottom line is that every case is so different, it's impossible to predict how long it will take.

Prepare for the worst, hope and pray for the best.

[Enlighten one :) 5]

That is great news. You are just in Admin Processing, which is typical in your region. It is just further work that needs to be completed to approve your case.

Let me correct that, great news that they admit you have a relationship! Bad news that you have to wait. Although disappointing at first, just consider this another part of the process.

Did you add your name to the AP tracker thread? This will help us get an average for different regions.

May your AP be expedited.

My husband's visa has been in AP for 6 weeks now in Caracas. I e-mailed the Embassy to check the status. Here is their response:

"As of this date, your husband's case is still pending administrative processing. We continue to check on the status of hsi case twice weekly. If you have not received a message from our office in two weeks from this date, please contact us to inquire as to the case status.

Thank you for mentioning your upcoming visit in December. It is not necessary for you to come to the Embassy, as Mr. Fortoul has provided ample evidence of your relationship."

My question is, who are they checking with twice weekly? The State Department? If so, do you think it would help if I call them?

Any feedback would be greatly appreciated

[emt103c 10]

My fiance and I are into our 8th month of security checks. Our relationship is also verified and they do not require additional proof. If you have not confirmed this is the case for you, then you could ask your Senator to do an inquiry right now. I had my answer within a week. The people at the DOS can't tell you why your case is in AP, but your Senator's DOS liason can.

Nothing personal, but I disagree with those that predict a faster or less complicated AP based on country, at least for stateside security checks. Once a case is in security checks in Washington we are at the mercy of the agencies who need to do the checks. I've been told by Dakar that it's completely out of their hands. This is why I suggested that Jacq1018 do an inquiry now to find out why their case is in AP. Guinea shouldn't be all that complicated or slow either but here we are, 8 months later and still waiting...

The bottom line is that every case is so different, it's impossible to predict how long it will take.

Prepare for the worst, hope and pray for the best.

I'm sorry that your AP has been so long, but I respectfully disagree about location affecting processing times in AP. Over and over again we see that areas like my husband's (his AP went through Pakistan) take longer than those in areas in South America. Whether it is bias, simple beaurocratic nonsense or the fact that records are more easily accessible from countries in South America, and European countries. . . it has historically made a difference. . .evidenced over and over again on this site and others.

My husband's AP was for simple document verification (as you stated the Senate liaison was able to tell me this, but then, so was the DOS rep. . .they DO know . . .whether they want to share the information or not is a different story for a different day. . . .) and it still took Pakistan 7 months to get out to the remote area or compare/verify the document. . . a process like that in a country like Brazil, Venezuela, England. . .non-existent.

Security checks are less frequently complicated in "certain" countries.

Also, the OP already stated she has been advised that "ample proof has been submitted" in reference to the relationship and that she didn't need to visit or provide more. . .

[hyd617 1]

Even i am in the same boat.

I was even present with my husband (indian citizen) at the Us embassy in chennai for the interview.

It went so good. i thought we had it. we were laughing and talking with the counsualr officer.

then boom she pulled out the blue 221 g sheet. said dont woryy i am confident you will get your visa, but i need to do some further administrative processing.

i was schoked my husband was shocked. we were so shocked we did not even ask her what? why? lol just walked out like losers ..

but when i call DOS they still say its still pending admin processing

we were not asked for additinal docs, nor did she ask to see any more proof, she said she trusts us..

i did contact the congressmans office in oct and they found out that chennai send our case to DOS a month after our interivew. ( so they sat on our case for a month in india??)

and the congressmans office said our case is normal routine pending receipt of clearance....

when i call chennai they say as soon as we receive clearance then we can process the visa( name check clearance)

and DOS always says pending ap

plus our congressman did not win this election so im thinkin if i should go to the new congressmans office? or contact the senators office?

any help, what should i do? its so frustrating. i dont wnat this to drag a long time.... it seems like we are wasting time a couple but God has its ways, and i belive it will come when the time is right...

[emt103c 10]

You can contact the old Congressman's office, sometimes they transfer the files to the new representative. However, in a time of transition you are likely to get lost in the shuffle. For the next few months, if I were you, I would see if I could get one of my Senate Reps to do a check. As WonTanNara advised it is a good idea to see if the Senator can find out what the AP is for.

You can also call DOS routinely (every two weeks or so) in the meantime and see if they will divulge the information.

AP is a horrible place to be. . .you can be fairly certain you will get the visa the question that kills us is when???

[hyd617 1]

You can contact the old Congressman's office, sometimes they transfer the files to the new representative. However, in a time of transition you are likely to get lost in the shuffle. For the next few months, if I were you, I would see if I could get one of my Senate Reps to do a check. As WonTanNara advised it is a good idea to see if the Senator can find out what the AP is for.

You can also call DOS routinely (every two weeks or so) in the meantime and see if they will divulge the information.

AP is a horrible place to be. . .you can be fairly certain you will get the visa the question that kills us is when???

thanks i think i will get in touch with the senators office and see what they have to offer....

[Zayd 0]

I would also have to completely disagree that the length of time spent in AP is not country related. If you look at past AP times, very few outside of Pakistan take longer than a year while it is not uncommon for Islamabad to take 1.5-3 years. What I suspect is likely is that the checks take comparable times wherever you are but that Islamabad just asks for more of them. Also, because of the sheer number of AP cases, the embassy has a much slower turn around time when it comes to requesting the passports and issuing the visas.

A good sign to me about that email they sent you is that they said it could contact them again in two weeks. Typically if they know AP is going to be long, they do not say that.

Edited December 9, 2008 by Zayd

[WonTanNara 0]

I would also have to completely disagree that the length of time spent in AP is not country related. If you look at past AP times, very few outside of Pakistan take longer than a year while it is not uncommon for Islamabad to take 1.5-3 years. What I suspect is likely is that the checks take comparable times wherever you are but that Islamabad just asks for more of them. Also, because of the sheer number of AP cases, the embassy has a much slower turn around time when it comes to requesting the passports and issuing the visas.

A good sign to me about that email they sent you is that they said it could contact them again in two weeks. Typically if they know AP is going to be long, they do not say that.

Well, Dakar told me to contact them if I had not heard from them in two months. I immediately asked them "Do most cases clear within that two months?" They said "No, most do not." I'm not trying to be Negative Nelly, I'm just being realistic. Ok... well yeah I guess I'm pretty negative after waiting for a K1 visa for a year... but still, just presenting my own experience.

I do absolutely agree with you that some embassies are a lot slower than others, and Islamabad seems to be one of the slowest. Chaingang said it would take them a month to review his medical and police reports which I take to mean it will sit on somebody's desk for a month until they get to it. Absurd.

But remember, I didn't generalize and say that length of time in AP is not country related. I'm talking about a very specific scenario. I said I think it's not country related for stateside security checks. I still think that once the case is in Washington, from the point it gets to Washington to the point it leaves Washington, the embassy has no control. At least this is what Dakar is telling me. It seems to be dependent on how common the name is and how many hits there are in our various security related databases. Different names come from different countries so I suppose you could look at it that way...

Every case is different so folks should try and get as much information as possible. The DOS people keep telling me that the gov't went in and changed their system so they can see absolutely nothing about my case anymore. I've talked to some really nice people and they always tell me "I wish I could give you more information but I can't see anything about your case except that it's in AP." Again, that might be different if somebody is not in AP for stateside security clearance.

In the beginning during my freak out phase some well intended people told me that Guinea wasn't all that complicated and didn't have long AP's. In fact somebody said it to me the other day. Here we are into our 8th month...

As I write this I think to myself what difference does it make? I'm numb from this process and I've given up trying to make any sense of it.

This is why I say to everyone in this situation prepare for the worst and hope and pray for the best.

We can agree to disagree. This is what makes the world interesting.

Edited December 9, 2008 by WonTanNara

[hyd617 1]

I just called DOS today,

I asked them for any updates or news on my husbands case. Still same old currently under AP..

so i asked how come, bc the CO officer told us 4-6 weeks. she laughed (politelty) and said it used to be 4-6 weeks but not any more its now 4-6 months for AP!

she said not to worry we are under normal processing times.

that gave me some relied. i started to worry how come we were told 4-6 weeks and we r in our 4th month.

so i gues most cases are taking 4-6 months to finish AP. which still is not bad compared to others who have been patiently waiting

thought i would share this new with everyone stuck in AP.. and wondering avg times...

[Jacq1018 0]

My fiance and I are into our 8th month of security checks. Our relationship is also verified and they do not require additional proof. If you have not confirmed this is the case for you, then you could ask your Senator to do an inquiry right now. I had my answer within a week. The people at the DOS can't tell you why your case is in AP, but your Senator's DOS liason can.

Nothing personal, but I disagree with those that predict a faster or less complicated AP based on country, at least for stateside security checks. Once a case is in security checks in Washington we are at the mercy of the agencies who need to do the checks. I've been told by Dakar that it's completely out of their hands. This is why I suggested that Jacq1018 do an inquiry now to find out why their case is in AP. Guinea shouldn't be all that complicated or slow either but here we are, 8 months later and still waiting...

The bottom line is that every case is so different, it's impossible to predict how long it will take.

Prepare for the worst, hope and pray for the best.

I'm sorry that your AP has been so long, but I respectfully disagree about location affecting processing times in AP. Over and over again we see that areas like my husband's (his AP went through Pakistan) take longer than those in areas in South America. Whether it is bias, simple beaurocratic nonsense or the fact that records are more easily accessible from countries in South America, and European countries. . . it has historically made a difference. . .evidenced over and over again on this site and others.

My husband's AP was for simple document verification (as you stated the Senate liaison was able to tell me this, but then, so was the DOS rep. . .they DO know . . .whether they want to share the information or not is a different story for a different day. . . .) and it still took Pakistan 7 months to get out to the remote area or compare/verify the document. . . a process like that in a country like Brazil, Venezuela, England. . .non-existent.

Security checks are less frequently complicated in "certain" countries.

Also, the OP already stated she has been advised that "ample proof has been submitted" in reference to the relationship and that she didn't need to visit or provide more. . .

Thank you so much for the information. This entire visa process has been a game of hurry up and wait. I can see by the other responses that AP is tracked in months rather than weeks. I called the DOS today and was told that our visa is still in AP. He couldn't (wouldn't ) tell me the reason. He did suggest to wait until we reach the 90 day mark before calling anyone else. In the time being, I will compose a letter to my rep. just in case we need it.

Thanks again!!

[WonTanNara 0]

Thank you so much for the information. This entire visa process has been a game of hurry up and wait. I can see by the other responses that AP is tracked in months rather than weeks. I called the DOS today and was told that our visa is still in AP. He couldn't (wouldn't ) tell me the reason. He did suggest to wait until we reach the 90 day mark before calling anyone else. In the time being, I will compose a letter to my rep. just in case we need it.

Thanks again!!

No harm in asking your Senator to do an inquiry now, then at least you'd know why your case is in AP. Good luck.

[miamiwife 0]

Thank you so much for the information. This entire visa process has been a game of hurry up and wait. I can see by the other responses that AP is tracked in months rather than weeks. I called the DOS today and was told that our visa is still in AP. He couldn't (wouldn't ) tell me the reason. He did suggest to wait until we reach the 90 day mark before calling anyone else. In the time being, I will compose a letter to my rep. just in case we need it.

Thanks again!!

No harm in asking your Senator to do an inquiry now, then at least you'd know why your case is in AP. Good luck.

Yeah--and don't think that the inquiry with be instantaneous either--the senator/congressman could ask even a month after you request them too.