What are our options?

[MARM 7]

Currently, my fiance is undergoing Administrative Processing at the US Embassy in London. He interviewed there on May 12, 2009 and as we all know, there is no set time limit for when it will be over. The problem is that my fiance's UK resident permit (he is a student in the UK) will expire on Nov 30, 2009. He does not qualify to extend his stay in the UK as a resident any longer after that based on the fact that he will no longer be a student in the UK. We don't know how long the AP will take, but he cannot extend his stay after Nov 30, 2009 based on his status as a student either. So we were wondering what options we have if his AP is not over by mid-November. He will be leaving the UK back to his home country of Pakistan before his residency expires in the UK (Nov 30, 09), so I am not sure whether we can request for his case to be transferred over to the embassy in Islamabad? Or are we better of canceling the K-1, getting married in Pakistan and going the CR-1/IR-1 route? We just want to be prepared before hand because he cannot stay longer in the UK after Nov 30, 2009, yet his case is under AP at the US Embassy in London since May 12, 2009.

We have notified the US Embassy in London about his residency expiring in Nov 2009, but I don't think they care, we got the standard response: Case is under AP without a set time frame and it cannot be expedited, we will contact you once the AP is over, blah blah blah...

We don't know what options we are looking at...

We have contacted both my senators and also my congressman, they made more than one inquiry each to London and DOS, but they get the standard response we know: he is in AP, no time limit, will inform him once it is over.

Edited September 1, 2009 by MARM

[Aniomaman 0]

Hey Marm it's sad you are still waiting in this AP hole, I do think you will hear from them by then since they have your fiance's passport and they are aware of his visa details which is why they are taking their jolly time. But you both should start making contingency plans if you don't hear from them by end of October, request his passport and get his ticket ready.

I say end of October considering how long it takes for London to respond to emails and for you no to be caught off-guard by their inefficiency. I can't believe they are still holding on to his passport especially considering he is a foreigner in the UK...that's just inconsiderate. DON'T cancel the K-1 but then IF for any reason he has to go back to Pakistan without the visa then you can request for the case to be transfered to Islamabad. You can then go ahead and get married if you think that's the best option but I would say you should wait out the decision on the K-1 before doing that.

Just my thoughts though and I look forward to hearing good news from you soon. Have a blessed month!

[MARM 7]

Hey Marm it's sad you are still waiting in this AP hole, I do think you will hear from them by then since they have your fiance's passport and they are aware of his visa details which is why they are taking their jolly time. But you both should start making contingency plans if you don't hear from them by end of October, request his passport and get his ticket ready.

I say end of October considering how long it takes for London to respond to emails and for you no to be caught off-guard by their inefficiency. I can't believe they are still holding on to his passport especially considering he is a foreigner in the UK...that's just inconsiderate. DON'T cancel the K-1 but then IF for any reason he has to go back to Pakistan without the visa then you can request for the case to be transfered to Islamabad. You can then go ahead and get married if you think that's the best option but I would say you should wait out the decision on the K-1 before doing that.

Just my thoughts though and I look forward to hearing good news from you soon. Have a blessed month!

Thank you so much for your support Aniomaman. It is very hard to not know anything and be stuck in this horrid thing they call "AP" for so long. We emailed London and let them know of his student visa expiring in Nov, and they just said the same standard thing they always say, which really is no help (and quite irritating and frustrating). So I guess that is the best we can do then, wait it out until the end of October and then get his passport back from the embassy in London, put a request for his case to be transferred to Islamabad and hope for the best.

Do you have any idea whether we should put the request for his case to be transferred to Islamabad before we ask for his passport back or after?

Thanks so much and I hope you get out of this horrid AP soon too, our case seems to be one of the rare few that get stuck in AP at London for so long, hopefully your AP will be done much quicker.

[anitacastillo 0]

The AP wait sucks - I know, we spent 11 months waiting. The consulate cannot issue the visa until the DOS(and other agencies) clears his name.

Unless there is a doubt of your relationship - canceling the K-1 and getting married will not solve the extended name investigation.

I don't think it really matters when you ask for the passport back versus transferring the case. If I were you I would be investigating transferring cases between consulates. Can anyone on VJ give idea of how to follow the case and not fall through the cracks.

Good Luck!!

[emt103c 10]

Actually, you can request the passport back and then when they notify you that they are ready to issue, you can send them the passport with a return mailer. Do verify this with an attorney, but I've heard of others who've done it before. Also, let it go as long as possible, they could still conceivably finish before December. . .my husband's Pakistani AP took 6 months almost to the day of its arrival in ISL. . . he processed in Canada.

[MARM 7]

Actually, you can request the passport back and then when they notify you that they are ready to issue, you can send them the passport with a return mailer. Do verify this with an attorney, but I've heard of others who've done it before. Also, let it go as long as possible, they could still conceivably finish before December. . .my husband's Pakistani AP took 6 months almost to the day of its arrival in ISL. . . he processed in Canada.

Do you mean to say that my fiance can request his passport back from the US Embassy in London, go to Pakistan once his stay in the UK is over and then mail his passport to the embassy in London from Pakistan? I didn't know that was an option.

Thank you so much for your help, I was just wondering, when I was looking at your timeline I saw that your husband's case was transferred to Islamabad after the interview, how did that happen and what was the process?

Thanks once again!

[MARM 7]

Still on AP

And supposedly I cannot make another senatorial inquiry (or congressional inquiry I think...the staff worker at the congressman's office hasn't gotten back to me yet) according to Senator Durbin's staff worker because it has been less than 90 days since the first senatorial inquiry. WTH??? She told me that,"As a courtesy we don't email and inquire less than 90 days, so call back at the end of September if you don't hear anything by then". Courtesy my foot!

[MARM 7]

I'm still hoping to find some information for how to get a case transferred out of one embassy to another while it is in AP, if anyone has ideas where to find that info, please let me know!

[miss g 1]

i dont think you can mail passports, they arent supposed to cross borders without the person, something like that.. i remember reading about it

[John & Mary 1]

I wonder if you can't get UKHO involved. If your fiance notifies them that he WANTS to leave the country by Nov. 30 but CAN'T because the American Embassy is essentially holding his passport hostage... perhaps one bureaucrat can speak to another and get something sorted out? If not, perhaps they might be willing to extend his stay in the UK as a courtesy to the US Embassy. It's worth a shot, I guess.

[MARM 7]

I wonder if you can't get UKHO involved. If your fiance notifies them that he WANTS to leave the country by Nov. 30 but CAN'T because the American Embassy is essentially holding his passport hostage... perhaps one bureaucrat can speak to another and get something sorted out? If not, perhaps they might be willing to extend his stay in the UK as a courtesy to the US Embassy. It's worth a shot, I guess.

Thanks for the suggestion, but the fact is that immigration to the USA is a privilege, not a right and the UKHO and the USCIS have made it clear on many occasions that they are independent of each other (but they don't hesitate to "rat" on "seeming" defaulters (as with VJ member Thayani's fiance). So in a nutshell: according to both the bureaucracies, my fiance chose to pursue a K-1 and chose to interview at the US Embassy in London because he chose to pursue his studies in the UK rather than in his country of citizenship...so it's a vicious cycle as you can see. Hopefully things will get sorted out way before Nov 09, if not, I have planned to get my senator invovled with a DETAILED inquiry regarding my fiance's situation. Thanks for the suggestion though