AP - CV required for B-2 Tourism Visa?!

[jimmyatron 0]

Hi all

Wondering if anyone has had similar experiences or can shed some light on this matter.

My girlfriend and I were planning on a holiday to the US in April - naively we have booked flights without her visa, and now we are left worrying about whether she will actually get one at all!

She is Russian and is currently studying for a MSc degree in the UK (I'm British so can visit USA through ESTA).

She applied for a B-2 tourism visa and visited the US embassy in London today.

She brought with her stamped bank statements showing she has sufficient funds for a visit to the USA, return flight tickets, hotel booking confirmations, a signed letter from her university confirming her studies until September, and her accommodation contract showing she has accommodation in the UK to return to. The embassy didn't even take a look at any of these documents.

They simply told her that she didn't accompany her application wiher CV and so it is now in Administrative Processing. I understand that now she has to wait for an e=mail and then send in her CV.

What is really frustrating is that they told her she should have brought this document with her in the first place...however the US embassy website does not state anywhere that this document is required, all I could find was a section which said:

"Professionals and academics in areas of science and technology traveling to the United States for academic, work or conference purposes are required to furnish the following documents, in addition to the documentary evidence required of all applicants:

a complete curriculum vitae;

a complete list of publications; and

an invitation letter from their sponsor, if appropriate."

Note that it says "for academic, work or conference purposes" - which she isn't, hence applying for a tuorist visa (she is studying a technology subject by the way).

So now we're a bit stuck and confused? Has anyone experienced this problem before?

Although I know the question of "how long will AP take?" is almost impossible to answer, I wondered if anyone can provide an indication or any comments based on these circumstances (i.e. AP for tourist visa, in london embassy, with cv required, russian citizen).

Flights are in 69 days - do you think we'll get it in time, or should we look at getting the money back on our flights?

Thanks

Edited January 22, 2013 by jimmyatron