After 5 months of applying 212 Waiver, normal 10 years visa without waiver notation

[nkgeicher 8]

My wife applied for B1/B2 Visa and at interview was approved and was to collect passport within 4 days.

Later case was put in AP and was informed by email that she was inadmissible and if she wanted to apply for waiver.

We replied the email saying we request waiver. This was the only interaction with consulate about Inadmissibility or waiver. Till then we had not heard the words of Inadmissibility or waiver.

After 5 months, she was issued a normal 10 year visa, without any notation of waiver. Entered US twice since then, but no questions at the border. I am a US citizen, and was living outside of US till now.

FOIA with CBP and also USCIS records ("A"file) came blank.

It appears CBP had made some mistake and when consular recommended for 212 Waiver, ARO found that she was wrongly entered not inadmissible and redacted deleted or modified the records so she did not need a waiver.

Is anyone aware of a similar case and how do we find out more details of what exactly happened?

[Penguin_ie 5,993]

Is it possible that the email you got was a form email, and that the waiver part didn't apply to your wife, just the AP part?

[nkgeicher 8]

AP means Administrative Processing.

The email clearly said in plain English that there was Inadmissibility in DHS records and if she wanted to accept this and if she wanted to request a waiver. We said yes. Later mail was sent by Consulate that waiver had been requested from ARO.

[nkgeicher 8]

There is a similar case on VJ by Mrshopkins in 2012. I sent a message through VJ to contact her to find more details, but no reply. Is there a way to send her a message that she can get?

[Penguin_ie 5,993]

If she doesn't want to reply, we cannot make her; considering it is 4 years ago, it is possible she doesn't even sue the email anymore she used to sign up to this site.

[newacct 688]

Technically, I-212 doesn't apply for a waiver. It applies for permission to reapply, which, if granted, eliminates the ban, so she has no ban anymore, and doesn't need a waiver.

[nkgeicher 8]

Waiver 212(d)(3) is only for NIV, if there is any inadmissibility. For countries requiring visitor visa, it can be recommended by consular to ARO, if he or she is convinced.

In my wife's case, consular recommended to ARO and ARO took 5 months to process. However later issued normsal visa without any waiver notation. Also issued 10 year visa, which would have been 1-5 yesrs if with waiver.

I am not able to get any light on this case as to what might have happened. All FOIA not giving any clue

[newacct 688]

Oops I misread the question. I thought it said I-212 somewhere.

Why did you think she is inadmissible?

[nkgeicher 8]

She had a Green Card before. She went outside the country for more than 1 year. Had to apply for "Returning Resident Visa - SB-1". She was not granted and issued a "misreprentation" letter. We double checked everything but never could find why. All paperwork and the interview was truth and nothing but truth.

So, it appears now that when we applied for her B1/B2 visa, they might have found out that they had denied her earlier SB-1 visa by mistake and corrected that mistake in their records now. But all this is our guess.

We are keen to know what happened, and that's the help and ideas I am seeking