Law Enforcement Record???

[cheyenne7700 0]

My fiance received his packet 3 today. In the packet there was a letter that reads the following:

"A namecheck reveals that there exists in the U.S. a law enforcement record possibly identifiable with you. We must obtain that record before issuing a visa, and need to take your fingerprints in order to do so. Thereafter, the wait may be up to three months. We would ordinarially do the fingerprints in the afternoon of the day of your scheduled visa appointment, but if you wish to avoid delay by appearing earlier, please write to the above address or e-mail this office to schedule an appointment"

Then it just goes on to tell you how to pay for the fingerprints and that you can bring a pre-paid international express envelope with you to expedite the shipping of the prints to the US.

Has anyone else received a letter like this? My fiance doesn't have any record in the US and doesn't even have unpaid parking tickets. We are thinking that because he has an Arabic name (even though he is from Australia) they are doing extra checks on him and don't want to just come right out and say that they are racially profiling him.

Any insight would be great! I just hope this doesn't add another 3 months to the process. At the rate we are going it will be a full year before we get approved! AHHHH!!!!

[englishamericanvisa 0]

From what I've read the namecheck thing can be pretty random. Also, is there as much variation in Arabic names as there is in North American/European ones? ie I was reading that because there is less surname variation in Latino countries with surnames, they often get picked for namechecking because they are more likely to match someone in the database. It's just hard luck if you have a common name, I guess.

From your quote it seems your partner just has the bad luck to share his name with a criminal in the database, so I doubt it's racial. Annoying yes, but logical. Obviously if your partner has the same name as a crim they have to check it out.

Poor you!

[mimi2005 1]

Im sorry to hear that. I had an fingerprint appointment at the consulate myself. Im registered in the US cause they didnt let me enter the States last year. They have suspected illegal immigration (which I never wanted to do!). I couldnt proof at the POE that I have work in my home country and they wouldnt believe me that I wanna go back. I have proofed all that at the Consulate while filing for a visitor visa right afterwards. They took fingerprints for the visitor visa, too. Now Im in the K1 visa process and they wanted my fingerprints again (not even a year afterwards).

I think this post might be interesting for you, too:

My fiance had his interview in Frankfurt on Wednesday (after waiting 3 months when most Germans wait a month or less - but he's Turkish so go figure). He said everything went pretty smoothly, but then the Consul told him they needed my dad (our cosponsors) birth certificate. i guess i should have thought of this, but i read through everything again and i'm pretty angry that no where does it say the BC of a cosponsor is required. But whatever, they're the boss. He was just going to send my fiance home to tell me the news so I could fax it to the consulate, but my fiance always gets nervous about these kinds of things so he asked the Consul to write exactly what is needed and the number to fax it, too. Only then did he pull out the green piece of paper. When I heard this I was thinking, woohoo! because i've heard in these cases you just send in what it is they need and then all is dandy and you get the visa in the mail in a few days. Well then my fiance asks if it will still take the standard 2 weeks maximum, and only then did the Consul inform him that in fact, it could take longer than this, probably just a week, because name checks were still being done on him.

That kind of ruined our day I was getting excited to have him here within weeks, but I figured if they add a couple more weeks to this wait it won't kill me. I just didn't get it because originally they told us the interview couldn't be scheduled until the background checks were over which is why we had to wait longer than most, but then this happens. So my fiance waited a few days and then called the consulate again just to make sure they got his medical results and my fax. Then he casually asked if it was still looking like it might take 3 weeks instead of 2, and the lady on the phone told him 2 months MINIMUM!!! i couldn't believe it. i thought we were approved?? and they're just sitting on his passport. it just doesn't seem quite right to me. should we ask for it back because knowing them, they could lose it or something! haha... or should we just let them keep the passport and hope the lady was wrong and the Consul was right and it won't take that long. That's what I was hoping, until another big surprise happened today....

Today when he checked his mail, there was a letter from the consulate with the ds-230 part II, the form you are supposed to sign in front of a consular officer. THEY FORGOT TO HAVE HIM DO IT!!!! my faith is completely lost in that consul and the whole darn consulate for that matter. I guess he should just go ahead and fill it out and sign it, even though it says in huge bold underlined letters to only sign in front of the consul. they didn't even attach special instructions, just that they forgot and he needs to fill it out and send it back. geez...

any advice would be greatly appreciated. ever hear of a case like this? think contacting a senator could do any good or would i just be wasting my energy that has all been drained from this ongoing stressful process... I just hate feeling like we are the toys of the big bad consulate and they can mess with our lives like this. and to top it all off, my grandma is in the hospital and all she ever says is how she is in a lot of pain and ready to die, except she wants to see me get married first. i don't know how to break the news to her

I hope things go well for you! Good luck!

Mimi

[Jackson1975 0]

My fiance received his packet 3 today. In the packet there was a letter that reads the following:

"A namecheck reveals that there exists in the U.S. a law enforcement record possibly identifiable with you. We must obtain that record before issuing a visa, and need to take your fingerprints in order to do so. Thereafter, the wait may be up to three months. We would ordinarially do the fingerprints in the afternoon of the day of your scheduled visa appointment, but if you wish to avoid delay by appearing earlier, please write to the above address or e-mail this office to schedule an appointment"

Then it just goes on to tell you how to pay for the fingerprints and that you can bring a pre-paid international express envelope with you to expedite the shipping of the prints to the US.

Has anyone else received a letter like this? My fiance doesn't have any record in the US and doesn't even have unpaid parking tickets. We are thinking that because he has an Arabic name (even though he is from Australia) they are doing extra checks on him and don't want to just come right out and say that they are racially profiling him.

Any insight would be great! I just hope this doesn't add another 3 months to the process. At the rate we are going it will be a full year before we get approved! AHHHH!!!!

Hi

I had this on the front of my pack 3 too. I panicked too.

I went down to the US Embassy (London) the next day and they asked me a few questions, firstly they had my date of birth wrong. They never explained what the problem was at all.

It was a bit of a wasted 130 mile journey really.

[aussiewench 9]

From what I've read the namecheck thing can be pretty random. Also, is there as much variation in Arabic names as there is in North American/European ones? ie I was reading that because there is less surname variation in Latino countries with surnames, they often get picked for namechecking because they are more likely to match someone in the database. It's just hard luck if you have a common name, I guess.

From your quote it seems your partner just has the bad luck to share his name with a criminal in the database, so I doubt it's racial. Annoying yes, but logical. Obviously if your partner has the same name as a crim they have to check it out.

Poor you!

Background/security checks are a legally mandated security check the Department of State (NVC) must do for all applicants/beneficiaries over the age of 16. It isn't random. Administrative processing in doing these checks for the visa application begin at NVC and can be forwarded to the consulate prior to the clearance being given. Consulate posts can be instructed to have full fingerprints taken of the visa applicant. This is generally done if there has been any name hits or security issues during the NVC process. A visa will not be issued until clearance has been received by the consulate. Applicants from particular countries will undergo more scrutiny.

On a side note: Every visa applicant regardless of name hits or security issues has fingerprints taken of left and right index finger at interview. This was implemented as part of the Department of State's Biometric Visa Program.....

The Department of State's Biometric Visa Program requires that all persons applying for U.S. visas have certain biometrics (in this case, fingerprints) and digital photographs collected during the visa application process and cleared through the Department of Homeland Security's (DHS) Automated Biometric Identification System (IDENT) before receiving a visa.

These prints are then transmitted from the overseas post through servers at State to DHS's IDENT system, which searches its records and sends a response back through State to the post. A 'hit' response, meaning that a match to someone previously entered in the system was found, prevents the post's computer system from printing a visa for the applicant until the information is reviewed and cleared by a consular officer.

State has encouraged consular officials to issue visas the day after interviews since part of the visa process now relies on another agency's system.

This would explain why consulates no longer in the majority of cases issue visas same day.

source

Whilst the above link seems to only refer to the NIV posts it is also applicable to IV posts issuance of immigrant visas.

Edited September 11, 2006 by aussiewench