O-1 processing time at London embassy

[Boiler 45,486]

O1 implies there is an Immigration Lawyer involved.

[German in UK 12]

8 minutes ago, Boiler said:

O1 implies there is an Immigration Lawyer involved.

Of course!

[610 0]

 

53 minutes ago, German in UK said:

One of the CO senators has contacted the embassy and State Dept three times now and only received generic responses each time (‘still pending, can’t be expedited’). The attorney wrote to Legalnet - no response at all. They won’t talk to the applicant and the legal representatives are being ignored too now. There’s lots of stone-walling. I’d say you need an immigration lawyer to help

you. 

 

Thanks for responses @German in UK

 

I have been discussing this with my immigration lawyer and they have asked me to contact the embassy. 

 

I was wondering @German in UK has your petitioner ever mentioned pulling out of the petition? My petitioner isn't sure they can wait for 6-12months and are discussing the idea. Do you know if this is something we can do, pull out my application?    

   

Thanks!

[Boiler 45,486]

Why isnt the Lawyer dealing with this, that is what they are being paid to do.

[German in UK 12]

52 minutes ago, 610 said:

 

Thanks for responses @German in UK

 

I have been discussing this with my immigration lawyer and they have asked me to contact the embassy. 

 

I was wondering @German in UK has your petitioner ever mentioned pulling out of the petition? My petitioner isn't sure they can wait for 6-12months and are discussing the idea. Do you know if this is something we can do, pull out my application?    

   

Thanks!

You can withdraw your application for the O visa. My petitioner also petitioned for an H-1B a couple of months ago and the consular officer told me the application for it was approved (‘you can travel and work on the H-1B’) regardless of the O being in AP. I was delighted, but then received an email 6 days later telling me the H-1B is also in AP now. They’re obviously getting a hit in one of the searches but I can’t imagine with it is. At that point, my petitioner discussed ‘letting me go’ but then decided to wait at least a full year for the O to be processed. I’ve got until May now. I guess once the job offer is withdrawn, the petition becomes invalid.

[German in UK 12]

Still no movement on either the O-1 or H-1B applications - 8 months are up now. Got myself my own attorney, who I trust knows what he's doing. University's lawyer (she who prepared the original O petition) has become somewhat antagonistic, probably because two errors she's made have been discovered: she declared the wrong country of birth for me and filed the petition in the wrong category (science rather than education - I'm an English Prof). Old attorney admits errors but calls them minor (self-protection?), new attorney thinks that, in the current visa climate, they have very likely triggered consular requests for both an SAO and LAO, hence the lengthy pressing. 

 

Corrected O petition will be re-filed in the next few days with a view to a fresh visa application which will be accompanied by police certificates that prove I'm no criminal, a letter from the dean explaining the appointment process (I.e. Internationally advertised, I got the job on merit), etc. I'm at my wit's end, of course, as this has been such a disruptive and destructive period of seemingly endless waiting. Wish me luck - if this doesn't work, I'll almost certainly end up unemployed. 

[Boiler 45,486]

Neither sound minor, what does your new lawyer think?

[DrEllaNJ 288]

whoa. The university lawyer probably deals with mostly people in science. But still, those are serious mistakes I would think. definitely keep your university appraised that they might want to seek services from a different lawyer. Hopefully the corrected petition is accepted soon!

[Coco8 1,042]

I'm glad your new lawyer found those issues. 

 

It is a shame the consulate does not provide information about the denial. They could have said that there were inconsistencies in the information provided in the petition, and that would have been enough to go back to it earlier. 

[German in UK 12]

11 hours ago, Boiler said:

Neither sound minor, what does your new lawyer think?

He thinks that the errors caused the lengthy administrative processing.

[German in UK 12]

4 hours ago, Coco8 said:

I'm glad your new lawyer found those issues. 

 

It is a shame the consulate does not provide information about the denial. They could have said that there were inconsistencies in the information provided in the petition, and that would have been enough to go back to it earlier. 

Thing is that the application hasn’t actually been denied - it’s still pending. We have to re-file a corrected version of the petition, then cancel the old application and start again. 

[Boiler 45,486]

40 minutes ago, German in UK said:

He thinks that the errors caused the lengthy administrative processing.

That makes two of us.

[Joe Black 0]

On 1/29/2018 at 1:49 PM, German in UK said:

Thing is that the application hasn’t actually been denied - it’s still pending. We have to re-file a corrected version of the petition, then cancel the old application and start again. 

Is there any news on the visa front? It's ridiculous it's taking so long...

Edited March 18, 2018 by Joe Black

[German in UK 12]

38 minutes ago, Joe Black said:

Is there any news on the visa front? It's ridiculous it's taking so long...

The corrected petition was re-filed and re-approved. Had another visa interview last week. Handed over police certificates to demonstrate I’m a good guy as well as a few additional letters of support. The officer was friendly and seemed sympathetic but the application still went straight into AP (was given a yellow note), apparently because of its pre-history. I asked if they had any detrimental information concerning my person on the system and the officer said ‘I can’t see any’. More info requested the following day (travel

history and addresses for last 15 years, info about siblings and spouses/partners, etc). Submitted that and, once again, just waiting now. The whole experience has been bizarre and quite damaging. 

[German in UK 12]

One more thing for everyone's benefit: Jay Gairson of Seattle is an awesome attorney. I strongly recommend him if your visa application has got stuck in AP.