Administrative Processing?

[Stuart and Thea 95]

I was approved for my K1 and my son's K2 in October. I was told 4-6 business days for the visa to be processed and it would be sent to my local DHL office. Anticipating that things sometimes slow down, I doubled that estimate and gave my notice at work, and my fiance planned his flight up here to come and get me. We had to cancel his flight when we still heard nothing about the visa.

We have made several attempts to find out what is going on, up to and including now having his Senate office look into it for us. I emailed them to ask if there was anything more I should do to help speed it along, and this is their response.

Good day,

Your case needed more administrative work after your interview. Your visa will be promptly issued as soon as the process is complete.

I hope that this information may be useful.

Sincerely,

OP8

Consular Correspondent | Immigrant Visa Unit

Montreal-IV-DV@state.gov

From:

Sent: Wednesday, November 09, 2011 6:14 PM

To: Montreal, IV

Subject: RE: MTL######

I am inquiring as to the status of my K1 visa, I had my interview approved on October 28th, and it has not yet been processed from the consulate according to DOS and the CSC website. I am wondering if there is some delay that I can help to speed up. Please let me know when I can expect this to be processed.

Thankyou

Someone finally gave us some info on it, and we were told that there was a name discrepancy on my son's passport and his visa. I have looked at all our paperwork and it's okay on our end, so someone made a typo. Today, my fiance was told that they have corrected the error but it's still in administrative processing. They told him this might take up to 2 months to fix...

I am desperately hoping that that's not the case, as I am now unemployed, and probably won't be able to qualify now for EI as I was planning on filing when I entered the US. How do I explain leaving my job to them now? Has anyone ever seen anything like this happen on here? I will also be homeless soon, so I need to fix this fast!

I've seen cases go into AP, and know that sometimes they do keep your passport, but I can't believe that this has happened because of a typo. By the way, my son's name is Connor, and sometimes I see people spell it Conner or Conor, so I'm guessing that was the typo...

Anyone with any thoughts on what to do next?

Edited November 16, 2011 by Stuart and Thea

[decocker 7,198]

Anyone with any thoughts on what to do next?

i would have your husband contact his congressman and ask for assistance communicating with montreal - since it's damn near impossible to get in touch with them on your own. this way if montreal takes too long correcting their error you can light a little fire under them by having his congressman's immigration liaison (or whatever they're called) make annoying calls for status updates.

that's what we had to do. it took a month from orfee's interview to get the printed visa mailed out (whew). if you didn't receive a 221g (i think) AP form at your interview - things should smooth out quickly..(well, montreal's version of quickly)

Edited November 16, 2011 by valerie78

[Stuart and Thea 95]

Okay, I didn't get a 221g, didn't get anything but the "welcome to the US" and the papers they hand you on what to do after you get there.

Excuse me for not knowing a lot about US politics, is a Senator different than a congressman? And should he get both on the case?

[S and P 9]

When my (now) husband's visa was taking an extremely long time to be issued, we called DOS several times trying to find out the status, we were told by one customer service rep that it was in Administrative Processing and it could take up to another month to be issued, but this was not the case, the words "Administrative Processing" get misused by those operators, and what they were really telling us was that the visas take "Administrative Work" after the interview process.... NOT the same thing... so you might not want to panic just yet, and keep calling DOS daily for whatever updates you can get.

So sorry to hear about all this mess for you!! I hope they get it cleared up fast.

[S and P 9]

Congressman might have an easier time dealing with the Department of State , but I think whichever one is most accessible to you would work!

[decocker 7,198]

orfee didn't get a welcome letter either. we were so stoked that we were done and everything was kosher that i didn't realize orfee wasn't given one until we were still waiting on the visa two weeks later and DOS was stating that we were in 'administrative processing', just like S and P said. man, those two words can send shivers up the spine - especially when you're outside of the standard print time...

[decocker 7,198]

sorry, i thought you said you didn't get a welcome letter!

also, congressmen have a person in their employment specifically for immigration related issues, plus they're more localized and available to assist - in my opinion. there are only two senators per state and congressman seat numbers per state are population based..

Edited November 16, 2011 by valerie78

[pocheros 101]

I don't really have any practical advice for you but I hope this issue gets resolved for you soon The whole process has been really rough on you! I hope you have some good luck later on when doing AOS and ROC to make up for it. Also as valerie said it's probably a good idea to contact a congressman.

[Stuart and Thea 95]

Okay, honey is at work, so I'm busy looking things up. Is a congressman someone from the house of representatives? I looked up congressman and wiki says both representatives AND senators are congressmen... We HAVE a senator, but not a representative, so I'm looking them up. How do you pick the one you want to help you? He's in Taney County Missouri, and it's so not like here where you can just contact an MP or MPP to help, these ones don't seem to be specific to an area??

Anyone familiar with the Missouri legislature?

[sheeshkabelle 153]

Write your Representative

Put your info in here and it will pop up with the Representative for your area :)You have a better chance of getting somewhere with your local Congressman.

I'll try to give you a short sweet US Civics lesson:

Congressmen- Each representative is elected to a two-year term serving the people of a specific congressional district.

Senator- Is representative for the whole state, elected every six years.

Since the United States legislature is bicameral, there are different titles for legislators: Congressmen/women are in the lower House, the Congress. Senators are members of the Senate, the higher branch of the House. Together they are called The House of Representatives. With out getting into too much detail, Senators have more 'power' than Congressmen. Like, consenting to treaties and consenting or confirming appointments of Cabinet secretaries and federal judges.

[Stuart and Thea 95]

Write your Representative

Put your info in here and it will pop up with the Representative for your area :)You have a better chance of getting somewhere with your local Congressman.

I'll try to give you a short sweet US Civics lesson:

Congressmen- Each representative is elected to a two-year term serving the people of a specific congressional district.

Senator- Is representative for the whole state, elected every six years.

Since the United States legislature is bicameral, there are different titles for legislators: Congressmen/women are in the lower House, the Congress. Senators are members of the Senate, the higher branch of the House. Together they are called The House of Representatives. With out getting into too much detail, Senators have more 'power' than Congressmen. Like, consenting to treaties and consenting or confirming appointments of Cabinet secretaries and federal judges.

Awesome on the short civics lesson! I got a free book at my interview that explains it all to me, (I think) but it's packed away with all of my things. (Oh yeah, did I mention that I'm living out of a suitcase at the moment?) I went on that site and found a list of representatives and linked it to my honey, lol, he can pick which one to call!

[Crystal&Tommy 2]

It sounds to me like "Administrative work" is a fancy term for "we screwed something up"...

I can imagine your frustration. I'm also making travel plans based on expected passport retrieval time. Wishing you good luck in getting this sorted out asap!

[CDN2US 10]

Gosh, I am so sorry to read this thread. It just goes to show nothing is in the bag at any stage. I am so sorry.

[Stuart and Thea 95]

Okay, yesterday he was told on the phone that they have finished processing it, so I should expect an email anytime with the waybill number on it? He was rushing off to buy a plane ticket and I told him to wait, not trusting any step of this process anymore.

How soon do you get the waybill number when they have processed the visa? And how long does it take from that email to when you get the visa? Approximate answers are fine, I just don't want him coming this week if it will be next...

[S and P 9]

Good news!!

When we were told my husband's visa was finally processed.... it took one week for them to get it printed and shipped. (they told us approx. 5-7 business days and they were right on)