My embassy interview seemed far too easy when considering a particular complication in our relationship history......

[zach21uk 3]

Hi All,

 

I had my interview at the US Embassy in Nicosia last Friday and it went far more smoothly than anticipated.  The interviewing officer asked me literally 3 questions then said I was approved, retained my passport and said that it would be ready in around 5 business days.

 

I was expecting the interview to be far more complicated as my wife and I had a little "kink" in the history of our relationship. 5 years ago when my wife (then girlfriend) was 17, her father (who never liked me) made reports to the police against me which eventually led to a warrant being issued and then a year later  recalled with the case itself dismissed (Nolle Prosequi).  The state prosecutor who dismissed it commented that it really never should have been filed as there was no evidence except for a couple of circumstantial items.  Anyway, I was expecting to be asked to provide copies of the Nolle Prosequi at the interview and asked at least several questions about what exactly happened.  In fact, the officer asked nothing about this and when she said I was approved after just three questions, my first reaction was "REALLY?!".

 

Well, I guess it was too good to be true because on Monday (2 days ago) the embassy emailed me and asked me to email them documents showing that the case was dropped and the warrant recalled. I replied within 20 minutes and within another 20 minutes, the case updated on CEAC to "Administrative Processing".   It is still in administrative processing today and the "Last Updated" date changed about an hour ago to todays date.

 

Should I assume at this point that the "five business days" is going to go out of the window?

 

The only reason I am stressing at the moment is that I am due to go out of the country at the end of next week to attend an important family engagement.  Obviously I would need my passport back for that.  I did mention this to the consular officer and she repeated "5 business days".

 

Anyone had a similar situation? (i.e. where they are approved and then contacted days later to provide additional documents?).

 

Thanks

Zach

[Redheadguy03 505]

Almost all visas go through administrative processing. The problem is you never know how long it takes. My fiances took a day, others literally take years. If they told you 5 days, just wait 5 days. 

 

You can't exactly speed up the process and you shouldn't have planned something that required a passport if you knew you were going to be having your interview. It's just like buying your ticket before you have the visa in hand, it can be very problematic. 

[zach21uk 3]

1 minute ago, Redheadguy03 said:

Almost all visas go through administrative processing. The problem is you never know how long it takes. My fiances took a day, others literally take years. If they told you 5 days, just wait 5 days. 

 

You can't exactly speed up the process and you shouldn't have planned something that required a passport if you knew you were going to be having your interview. It's just like buying your ticket before you have the visa in hand, it can be very problematic. 

Yes I know that most visas go through a period of administrative processing.

 

The frustation here is that I feel like they should have asked me for these documents on Friday and that they didn't because the CO didn't read our case files properly or something.  Why else wouldn't they ask for something so important?

 

I had told my family that I might not be able to attend and only booked a ticket after the CO told me 2 times that it would be 5 business days. 

 

Will just have to see how things go I guess.

[millefleur 5,046]

Unfortunately if it's the embassy who messes up you just have to wait it out.

 

This is exactly why on VJ we always say "don't book flights until you have the visa in your hand". The CO (or someone at the Embassy) messed up and now you just have to wait and see what happens. Maybe they'll stick to their original plan, maybe they won't. It's all up in the air now until they decide.

[jan22 3,052]

Assuming you said "yes" to the question about ever having been arrested (if you said no, thats a different issue!), the officer probably should have asked about it --  but you also could have raised the issue, letting him/her know that you had the court documents with you, in case they were needed.  Better to be pro-active about a potential issue than hope it isn't an issue or that it's over-looked. Or, if the timing for the family trip was that tight, you could have asked whether it was possible to have your passport for the trip and then send it back in for visa printing after the trip.

 

I know this isn't helpful for your situation now, but decided to post this in case it can be some help to someone in a similar situation.

 

 

[zach21uk 3]

14 minutes ago, jan22 said:

Assuming you said "yes" to the question about ever having been arrested (if you said no, thats a different issue!), the officer probably should have asked about it --  but you also could have raised the issue, letting him/her know that you had the court documents with you, in case they were needed.  Better to be pro-active about a potential issue than hope it isn't an issue or that it's over-looked. Or, if the timing for the family trip was that tight, you could have asked whether it was possible to have your passport for the trip and then send it back in for visa printing after the trip.

 

I know this isn't helpful for your situation now, but decided to post this in case it can be some help to someone in a similar situation.

 

 

I was never (and have never been) under arrest or in custody which is one of the many unique aspects of what our situation was.  As such, the truthful answer to the question about being arrested is "no".  The warrant was issued whilst I was outside of the US, which in turn prevented me from re-entering (either via VWP or with a B2 which I applied for when this was ongoing and was denied). The entire thing was dealt with from outside of the US.

Edited June 14, 2017 by zach21uk

[jan22 3,052]

58 minutes ago, zach21uk said:

I was never (and have never been) under arrest or in custody which is one of the many unique aspects of what our situation was.  As such, the truthful answer to the question about being arrested is "no".  The warrant was issued whilst I was outside of the US, which in turn prevented me from re-entering (either via VWP or with a B2 which I applied for when this was ongoing and was denied). The entire thing was dealt with from outside of the US.

Hmmmmm..how did it prevent your re-entry, then?  Strange, if the warrant/case was discussed in the B2 interview, they should still have had the records on the case.  Confusing.

 

If it's important to you to go to the family engagement, you might try contacting the Embassy and see if you could get your passport back, given the delay, and resubmit it after the frip.

Edited June 14, 2017 by jan22

[zach21uk 3]

No need to worry it seems. Received my Immigrant Visa today in my passport.