Did we wait in AP all this time for nothing?! Please help - what does this mean?!

[Adnan&Liane 8]

Hi All,

I need your help and advice - my husband has been stuck in Administrative Processing for the last 12.5 months. I have assumed it was because of name checks due to his common muslim name. I have repeatedly called the Department of State, emailed the embassy, and even had our Senator make several inuiries into our case. After our interview we were told no documents were missing and they had everything they needed (they did not ask for his passport), but told us that we just had to wait for our AP to finish.

Well, I recently sent an email to the Whitehouse and this is the response I received:

Dear Ms. _________,

I am writing in response to your October 5, 2012 letter to President Barack Obama concerning the immigrant visa application of Mr. ________ in the United Kingdom. Because the Department of State is responsible for all visa matters, your letter was forwarded to us for our reply.

Visa applications are adjudicated in accordance with criteria specified in the Immigration and Nationality Act (INA) and applicable federal regulations. A review of Department consular records confirmed that Mr. _______'s visa application is pending at the U.S. Embassy in London, United Kingdom, under Section 221(g) of the INA. An application may be refused under Section 221(g) of the INA when required or supporting documents are incomplete or while the consular officer verifies information submitted in support of an application.

In Mr. ______'s case, the consular officer is awaiting submission of Mr. Mohamedy's complete travel history, his current passport and all prior passports. If you have questions regarding the submission of these documents, you may contact the Embassy's Visa Information Center by telephoning 09042-450-100. If calling from the United States, the number is 1-866-382-3589.

I trust this information is helpful.

Sincerely,

____________

Chief

Public Inquiries Division

Visa Services

I am not sure what this means. I have not called the embassy yet, because I want to get some feedback and find out if anyone else had a similar experience first. I was under the assumption that we have been in AP due to name/background checks...but it sounds like they are waiting for his travel records and passport. We were NOT asked for any of this at any point. I even heard about another case that had expired and was denied because forms that were never requested were not submitted in time - so I specifically asked the DOS if they had everything they needed for our case when I last called them - and they said they did.

Is there an agency that performs travel history checks (FBI?) for the embassy or is that something we were expected to submit?

Do you think it's possible we've spent all this time waiting while they were actually waiting on us to submit travel history/passport?

Please - what do you guys think? Please share opinions/advice/similar experiences... I want as much info as possible before I try to call the embassy about this...

Thanks in advance for your feedback....

[sweetlymystic 19]

My opinion is they are simply waiting for his passport...and honestly they probably was to take it from him after the interview. I hope that is all it is...if so...what a terrible mistake on the consular's part.

[H&A&N 13]

i dont really have any information but i would definitely call the department of state and contact the embassy as well. This is surprising news due to that fact that they dont usually tell you why you are in AP, but happen to do so because it has got the attention of the white house. but thank you for sharing this information, my husband has been on AP for 31months now, over 2years and a half, they tell us the exact same thing that all his documentation is fine and they have everything that they need yet, they have to finish AP in order to approve or deny him. I would like to contact the white house also, maybe i can get a reason why he is in AP. Can you share how you contacted the white house and how long it took for a reply back? I would highly appreciate it and i hope you hear some good news soon. Keep us updated.

[EAbbas 213]

Hi All,

I need your help and advice - my husband has been stuck in Administrative Processing for the last 12.5 months. I have assumed it was because of name checks due to his common muslim name. I have repeatedly called the Department of State, emailed the embassy, and even had our Senator make several inuiries into our case. After our interview we were told no documents were missing and they had everything they needed (they did not ask for his passport), but told us that we just had to wait for our AP to finish.

Well, I recently sent an email to the Whitehouse and this is the response I received:

Dear Ms. _________,

I am writing in response to your October 5, 2012 letter to President Barack Obama concerning the immigrant visa application of Mr. ________ in the United Kingdom. Because the Department of State is responsible for all visa matters, your letter was forwarded to us for our reply.

Visa applications are adjudicated in accordance with criteria specified in the Immigration and Nationality Act (INA) and applicable federal regulations. A review of Department consular records confirmed that Mr. _______'s visa application is pending at the U.S. Embassy in London, United Kingdom, under Section 221(g) of the INA. An application may be refused under Section 221(g) of the INA when required or supporting documents are incomplete or while the consular officer verifies information submitted in support of an application.

In Mr. ______'s case, the consular officer is awaiting submission of Mr. Mohamedy's complete travel history, his current passport and all prior passports. If you have questions regarding the submission of these documents, you may contact the Embassy's Visa Information Center by telephoning 09042-450-100. If calling from the United States, the number is 1-866-382-3589.

I trust this information is helpful.

Sincerely,

____________

Chief

Public Inquiries Division

Visa Services

I am not sure what this means. I have not called the embassy yet, because I want to get some feedback and find out if anyone else had a similar experience first. I was under the assumption that we have been in AP due to name/background checks...but it sounds like they are waiting for his travel records and passport. We were NOT asked for any of this at any point. I even heard about another case that had expired and was denied because forms that were never requested were not submitted in time - so I specifically asked the DOS if they had everything they needed for our case when I last called them - and they said they did.

Is there an agency that performs travel history checks (FBI?) for the embassy or is that something we were expected to submit?

Do you think it's possible we've spent all this time waiting while they were actually waiting on us to submit travel history/passport?

Please - what do you guys think? Please share opinions/advice/similar experiences... I want as much info as possible before I try to call the embassy about this...

Thanks in advance for your feedback....

It may be something as simple as they concluded the name checks and now want to verify what they found out as far as the countries in which he has been. It may be completely coincidental. Check your emails etc and call the embassy to find out and verify this information. Sometimes the embassy sends emails and it goes into spam so check that too.

Hopefully this is closing in on the end of AP for you!

[Ebunoluwa 6,136]

The consulate can verify any document/information you submitted, internally or through another agency.

They then cross check the data entered on your forms with their own checks.

I do not believe they were waiting for you to send them anything else but needed to do some extra checks by accessing their

own or other agencies available data base.

[Schneider 5]

Just relax, don't panic, contact an attorney or simply submit the requested travel history and all passports, everything will be fine. I think you might overlooked the 221g notice to submit all these documents

[carolynhotstuff 252]

I think this information is very important to your individual case. Most people don't have to give travel histories and old passports. I think their security checks are almost done but they want to make sure he has not been to a certain country because maybe he has the same name as someone else.

[H&A&N 13]

Anything new?

[Adnan&Liane 8]

THANK YOU ALL for the feedback - sorry for not getting back right away - I've been busy trying to get to the bottom of this....I finally heard back from the embassy and they confirmed that they just requested this information on October 29th so we have not been waiting forever for nothing - although we did not get any requests for this information through mail or email, etc.

They are requesting his complete travel history, current passport, & all prior passports. Has anyone else had this information requested of them? We're not quite sure how to format his complete travel history? I'm a little confused, because shouldn't everything already be stamped in his passport? Unless they just want us to write it out so it's easier for them to read? Also, my husband said he no longer has his old passport - he's looked everywhere but apparently it's long gone... Not sure why they need an old passport but I'm not quite sure what to do if we don't have it?

Sorry for so many questions - getting any specific information out of the embassy is tough so I'm hoping someone who's been through this can share some advice....thanks!

[Darnell 8,478]

i would start with age 16, going forward to yesterday, covering every border crossing anywhere on the planet.

Make it a sheet of paper, practice writing it by hand first,

Aug 3, 1994 to Aug 17, 1994, Tripoli, visiting with Aunt

Aug 17, 1994 to December 27th,1994, Manchester, boarding school

Dec 28th, 1994 to January 17,1995, Casablanca, visiting with Grandfather

January 18, 1995 to May 24, 1995, Manchester, boarding school

...

June 11, 2012 to current - Liverpool, University ...

[Ebunoluwa 6,136]

Wow, yes send the complete travel dates in the format Darnell suggested. Had you not send the letter you would not have known

that they wanted the information. That is so crazy of them not to contact you. Sounds like they are cross checking something,

wanting to compare your filled out forms with the old passport stamps for consistent travel information.

[Adnan&Liane 8]

Hi All,

So with the holidays and my new job keeping me SUPER busy it took us a bit to compile his travel history....but we submitted it mid-January along with his passports. Unfortunately, he does not have one of his previous passports anymore so I really hope that does not cause us any further delays. I included an extremely detailed travel history as well as a letter explaining the missing passport, the letter I initially received from the DOS/Whitehouse response, and my email correspondence w/the Embassy about this recent development in our case. And just for the record, we never received any official notification from the Embassy requesting this information, so had I not been checking into it, who knows how long we would have gone without knowing. Now - we wait. Will try to update w/any news...according to the DOS visa status website they last updated our case on Jan 25th...hoping we hear something good soon...thank you for all of the great feedback and good luck to everyone else that is waiting!

[mkaurd 2]

Hi All,

So with the holidays and my new job keeping me SUPER busy it took us a bit to compile his travel history....but we submitted it mid-January along with his passports. Unfortunately, he does not have one of his previous passports anymore so I really hope that does not cause us any further delays. I included an extremely detailed travel history as well as a letter explaining the missing passport, the letter I initially received from the DOS/Whitehouse response, and my email correspondence w/the Embassy about this recent development in our case. And just for the record, we never received any official notification from the Embassy requesting this information, so had I not been checking into it, who knows how long we would have gone without knowing. Now - we wait. Will try to update w/any news...according to the DOS visa status website they last updated our case on Jan 25th...hoping we hear something good soon...thank you for all of the great feedback and good luck to everyone else that is waiting!

What is the e-mail address to contact white house?

[Adnan&Liane 8]

What is the e-mail address to contact white house?

Just go to Whitehouse.gov > contact us > submit comments online

...or else you can write a letter...the address is under the 'write the whitehouse' link...

[Chocohazel 2]

Just go to Whitehouse.gov > contact us > submit comments online

...or else you can write a letter...the address is under the 'write the whitehouse' link...

Update us when u get an answer from them