Foreign Documents Verification

[boiler4811 0]

Hi Guys,

 

My Fiance had her K1 visa interview at the Bangkok embassy in Thailand in July 2017. The interview went very well and the counselor officer didn't really ask her many questions. However, since my fiancee is an Indian citizen (working in Thailand as an expatriate) she had 2 documents from the Indian government. As a result, she was given a 221g and the counselor officer told her that the visa will be issued once these 2 documents are verified which would take a maximum of 15 days. It has been well over 2 months and we haven't heard anything from the consulate and the status still shows Administrative Processing.

 

Just wanted to ask you guys if anyone else had this experience before and how long did it take to get the visa issued. Thanks in advance.

Less 

 

[PedroDaGr8 245]

3 hours ago, boiler4811 said:

Hi Guys,

 

My Fiance had her K1 visa interview at the Bangkok embassy in Thailand in July 2017. The interview went very well and the counselor officer didn't really ask her many questions. However, since my fiancee is an Indian citizen (working in Thailand as an expatriate) she had 2 documents from the Indian government. As a result, she was given a 221g and the counselor officer told her that the visa will be issued once these 2 documents are verified which would take a maximum of 15 days. It has been well over 2 months and we haven't heard anything from the consulate and the status still shows Administrative Processing.

 

Just wanted to ask you guys if anyone else had this experience before and how long did it take to get the visa issued. Thanks in advance.

Less 

 

Yep, my wife is Viet but was working in BKK for a large corp. We went through the same thing, you mention. Give me a moment to find the post that I made and I will reply with more details.

Edited September 29, 2017 by PedroDaGr8

[C-ma'am 684]

**Post moved from K1 Process to Progress Reports

[PedroDaGr8 245]

For anyone dealing with the BKK US Embassy: email is ALWAYS the better method. Calling by phone results in quick, seldom helpful, scripted responses, that show nothing more than they just looked at the main page of your case and that is it.  On the other hand with email, they tend to respond pretty quickly (within 24h) and because they don't have to answer that instant, they have time to look at your case and give a real answer. Every time we contacted them via email, the online status showed her case had been touched; this wasn't always true for phone calls.  In general, the beneficiary (your fiancee) should be the one emailing the BKK embassy, the case is between them and the beneficiary (not between them and you). As such, they often will not respond or minimally respond to any questions from the petitioner. As there are several email addresses, staffed by different people (with different levels of power and specialization), we emailed:  visabkkiv@state.gov (not sure which one you emailed in the past) In the subject line of the email, you should include the Case ID, which has the format BKK2017XXXXXX. While in the body of the email, include both of your details, noting who is the petitioner and who is the beneficiary, followed by the question you are asking. This gives them all of the information they need to do their job. Do note, they can sometimes give rather evasive answers. They will often tell you exactly what you need to know, but you need to sometimes read between the lines or gauge intent. See: how the evaded confirming our approval but the stuff they asked for would only be relevant with an approval. 

 

Also, from my understanding, how rapidly the US Embassy/Consulate in India that they are working with to verify the documents (as well as possibly, the response time of the Indian government) can dictate how quickly the process takes. If either is very slow, it can delay things. 

 

Now our story:

My fiancee is Vietnamese but interviewing at the Bangkok US Embassy, because she lives and works in Bangkok. The day before my fiancee's interview at the US Embassy, her interview appointment disappeared from the embassy website; it was wiped entirely off the schedule for that month. Surprised and unsure what to do, I posted on here if anyone had any experience with this. Nobody had encountered this happening before but the general consensus was to go to the interview anyways because we had not heard anything from the embassy and we have the letter saying she was scheduled for an interview. So she went to her appointment as originally scheduled. Once there, they took all of her documents as if she was having her interview and there was no indication of anything wrong. She was asked the usual first round of questions when she gave the documents and then she waited 5 hours for her name to be called up for her interview. When she was called up, the officer simply said that they wanted to independently verify ALL of her official Vietnamese documents (the ones that she got directly from the Viet government) and as such there would be no interview today (his words). He gave her back her passport and a 221G with the only thing checked being "Other:" and it is filled in with "Administrative Processing of Vietnamese Documents". He refused to giver her any time frame, estimated time, or honestly any other details at all. He would just state: "There is no timeline for this." This left us wondering how long it would take; the horror stories about 221G and Administrative Processing abound.  

 

After a couple weeks, she sent them an email inquiring about the status and if there is anything we could do to help the process move forward. They responded:

 

Quote

Dear Sir/Madam: 

 

Thank you for your email.

It is our pleasure to inform you that your visa has now been approved. We are working with the preparation of your visa package at the moment which takes approximately ten business days. Applicant should refrain from making any irrevocable travel arrangements until he/she receives the visa package back in hand. Once the package is ready, we will mail it to the applicant's mailing address in his/her GSS profile. All of the original documents will be returned to the applicant with this package.

 

The tracking number of the package will not be available until it is sent off. You are welcome to check back with us in the next ten business days for possible update. 

Best Regards,

Immigrant Visa Unit

US Embassy Bangkok

 

At this point, this is strange for two reasons. First off, she was told that she would not be having an interview that day by the Customs Officer. She was not asked any interview questions by the officer (only the initial basic question stuff). This would imply, that at a later date she would have to go back for the interview. Secondly, how could they send her the passport with visa when they don't even have it in their possession, they gave it back! Wondering how they can process the packet without her passport and worried that the first email might be in error (if they messed up one critical fact, it's possible they messed up both), she emailed them again asking about the passport and for confirmation of the approval. They responded that she should mail her passport to the same address as her Packet 3 but never addressed her request for confirmation of the content of the first email. So she sends it in by expedited post and it arrives there the day before the Songkran holiday. A couple days after Songkran, she emails them asking if they received her passport and again asking for confirmation of the approval. They responded that they are still working through the backlog from the holiday but will get to it shortly, again no confirmation of approval. Suddenly, 8 business days from the initial email, her CEAC status changes from Immigrant to Non-Immigrant with a status of Ready and a new case date is registered. Within 12 hours of this change (overnight into morning of Day 9), her status flies through Ready-->Administrative Processing-->Issued. On top of that, checking her passport status late in the evening of Day 9, it changes to show that it has been submitted for shipping and to wait for confirmation of when it was shipped. On Day 10, despite no notice of shipping, she came home from work to find her passport in her mailbox with the visa included! So they literally hit their 10 business days estimate, if you ignore the days off for Songkran Holiday. 

 

Timeline of the process:

• March 30th - She was scheduled to have her interview, receives the 221G
• March 31-April 4 - Case is continuously touched until the 4th. We have a suspicion our case was approved at this point and they never contacted us (they didn't have her passport either)
• April 10th (10 days later) she emailed them to inquire on if there was any updates and anything she could do to move things forward
• April 10th (about 3h) - received their response saying we were approved. 
• April 10th - During her afternoon break she shipped out the passport, in an attempt to beat Songkran (which failed).
• April 11th - They received her passport according to the Post Office
• April 17th -She emailed to confirm they received it. They issued an evasive answer about Songkran backlog (they love evasive non-committal answers)
• April 21st - The case shows its first time of being touched, after receiving the passport, without us emailing them. We assume this is when they processed receiving her passport.
• April 24th Evening - The case changes from Immigrant Visa to Non-Immigrant Visa and a new case created date is given
• April 25th morning (less than 12h later) - Case flies through Ready --> Administrative Processing --> Issued. We were surprised how fast we went from basically "Immigrant - Ready" to "Non-immigrant - Approved"
• April 26th - She receives her passport in the mail. No email with tracking info or anything was sent out. She just checked her mailbox and boom it was there.
• April 29th - She travels back to Vietnam to visit with family and friends.
• May 2nd - She arrives in the USA, without issue. 

I hope that this helps you a bit.

 

Edited September 29, 2017 by PedroDaGr8

[boiler4811 0]

2 minutes ago, PedroDaGr8 said:

For anyone dealing with the BKK US Embassy: email is ALWAYS the better method. Calling by phone results in quick, seldom helpful, scripted responses, that show nothing more than they just looked at the main page of your case and that is it.  On the other hand with email, they tend to respond pretty quickly (within 24h) and because they don't have to answer that instant, they have time to look at your case and give a real answer. Every time we contacted them via email, the online status showed her case had been touched; this wasn't always true for phone calls.  In general, the beneficiary (your fiancee) should be the one emailing the BKK embassy, the case is between them and the beneficiary (not between them and you). As such, they often will not respond or minimally respond to any questions from the petitioner. As there are several email addresses, staffed by different people (with different levels of power and specialization), we emailed:  visabkkiv@state.gov (not sure which one you emailed in the past) In the subject line of the email, you should include the Case ID, which has the format BKK2017XXXXXX. While in the body of the email, include both of your details, noting who is the petitioner and who is the beneficiary, followed by the question you are asking. This gives them all of the information they need to do their job. Do note, they can sometimes give rather evasive answers. They will often tell you exactly what you need to know, but you need to sometimes read between the lines or gauge intent. See: how the evaded confirming our approval but the stuff they asked for would only be relevant with an approval. 

 

Now our story:

My fiancee is Vietnamese but interviewing at the Bangkok US Embassy, because she lives and works in Bangkok. The day before my fiancee's interview at the US Embassy, her interview appointment disappeared from the embassy website; it was wiped entirely off the schedule for that month. Surprised and unsure what to do, I posted on here if anyone had any experience with this. Nobody had encountered this happening before but the general consensus was to go to the interview anyways because we had not heard anything from the embassy and we have the letter saying she was scheduled for an interview. So she went to her appointment as originally scheduled. Once there, they took all of her documents as if she was having her interview and there was no indication of anything wrong. She was asked the usual first round of questions when she gave the documents and then she waited 5 hours for her name to be called up for her interview. When she was called up, the officer simply said that they wanted to independently verify ALL of her official Vietnamese documents (the ones that she got directly from the Viet government) and as such there would be no interview today (his words). He gave her back her passport and a 221G with the only thing checked being "Other:" and it is filled in with "Administrative Processing of Vietnamese Documents". He refused to giver her any time frame, estimated time, or honestly any other details at all. He would just state: "There is no timeline for this." This left us wondering how long it would take; the horror stories about 221G and Administrative Processing abound.  

 

After a couple weeks, she sent them an email inquiring about the status and if there is anything we could do to help the process move forward. They responded:

 

 

At this point, this is strange for two reasons. First off, she was told that she would not be having an interview that day by the Customs Officer. She was not asked any interview questions by the officer (only the initial basic question stuff). This would imply, that at a later date she would have to go back for the interview. Secondly, how could they send her the passport with visa when they don't even have it in their possession, they gave it back! Wondering how they can process the packet without her passport and worried that the first email might be in error (if they messed up one critical fact, it's possible they messed up both), she emailed them again asking about the passport and for confirmation of the approval. They responded that she should mail her passport to the same address as her Packet 3 but never addressed her request for confirmation of the content of the first email. So she sends it in by expedited post and it arrives there the day before the Songkran holiday. A couple days after Songkran, she emails them asking if they received her passport and again asking for confirmation of the approval. They responded that they are still working through the backlog from the holiday but will get to it shortly, again no confirmation of approval. Suddenly, 8 business days from the initial email, her CEAC status changes from Immigrant to Non-Immigrant with a status of Ready and a new case date is registered. Within 12 hours of this change (overnight into morning of Day 9), her status flies through Ready-->Administrative Processing-->Issued. On top of that, checking her passport status late in the evening of Day 9, it changes to show that it has been submitted for shipping and to wait for confirmation of when it was shipped. On Day 10, despite no notice of shipping, she came home from work to find her passport in her mailbox with the visa included! So they literally hit their 10 business days estimate, if you ignore the days off for Songkran Holiday. 

 

Timeline of the process:

• March 30th - She was scheduled to have her interview, receives the 221G
• March 31-April 4 - Case is continuously touched until the 4th. We have a suspicion our case was approved at this point and they never contacted us (they didn't have her passport either)
• April 10th (10 days later) she emailed them to inquire on if there was any updates and anything she could do to move things forward
• April 10th (about 3h) - received their response saying we were approved. 
• April 10th - During her afternoon break she shipped out the passport, in an attempt to beat Songkran (which failed).
• April 11th - They received her passport according to the Post Office
• April 17th -She emailed to confirm they received it. They issued an evasive answer about Songkran backlog (they love evasive non-committal answers)
• April 21st - The case shows its first time of being touched, after receiving the passport, without us emailing them. We assume this is when they processed receiving her passport.
• April 24th Evening - The case changes from Immigrant Visa to Non-Immigrant Visa and a new case created date is given
• April 25th morning (less than 12h later) - Case flies through Ready --> Administrative Processing --> Issued. We were surprised how fast we went from basically "Immigrant - Ready" to "Non-immigrant - Approved"
• April 26th - She receives her passport in the mail. No email with tracking info or anything was sent out. She just checked her mailbox and boom it was there.
• April 29th - She travels back to Vietnam to visit with family and friends.
• May 2nd - She arrives in the USA, without issue. 

I hope that this helps you a bit.

 

Thank you for sharing this.

I must admit you guys were extremely fortunate to get this resolved within 2 weeks. We have been waiting for over 2 months and have heard nothing from them. The only time our status update date changes is when we email or call them. I even got my senator involved and they gave him the same generic response that they give us. 

[PedroDaGr8 245]

7 minutes ago, boiler4811 said:

Thank you for sharing this.

I must admit you guys were extremely fortunate to get this resolved within 2 weeks. We have been waiting for over 2 months and have heard nothing from them. The only time our status update date changes is when we email or call them. I even got my senator involved and they gave him the same generic response that they give us. 

Are you contacting the same email address that I mentioned? As I stated, different email address are supposedly staffed by different groups. Each group has their own specialty I guess and seems to have different levels of power and ability to look into things. This email address seems to be the one dedicated to K1/CR1 types of things.  You might try asking if there is anything you all can do to help speed up the process. Ask if there is anyone dept in the Indian Gov that needs to be contacted to help speed things up. If there is a dept that is holding things up in the Indian Gov, your fiancee can look into giving "pressure/encouragement". My guess is they won't give you that level of detail, but sometimes they can be surprisingly forthcoming and other times a stone wall.

 

I agree that we were lucky, there is literally no information on the internet about this kind of Administrative Processing. Which meant we were entirely in the dark at the time and had no clue what to do or what to expect. Of course, we were planning for the worst. As such, I know the feeling of waiting without any idea of when it will stop, it is damn frustrating. Good luck to you. 

Edited September 29, 2017 by PedroDaGr8

[boiler4811 0]

24 minutes ago, PedroDaGr8 said:

Are you contacting the same email address that I mentioned? As I stated, different email address are supposedly staffed by different groups. Each group has their own specialty I guess and seems to have different levels of power and ability to look into things. This email address seems to be the one dedicated to K1/CR1 types of things.  You might try asking if there is anything you all can do to help speed up the process. Ask if there is anyone dept in the Indian Gov that needs to be contacted to help speed things up. If there is a dept that is holding things up in the Indian Gov, your fiancee can look into giving "pressure/encouragement". My guess is they won't give you that level of detail, but sometimes they can be surprisingly forthcoming and other times a stone wall.

 

I agree that we were lucky, there is literally no information on the internet about this kind of Administrative Processing. Which meant we were entirely in the dark at the time and had no clue what to do or what to expect. Of course, we were planning for the worst. As such, I know the feeling of waiting without any idea of when it will stop, it is damn frustrating. Good luck to you. 

visasbkkiv@state.gov  - This is the email address we have been using to contact the embassy which appears to be the same one you mentioned. 

 

The problem is that when we email them and it doesn't matter what question we ask them we get the same generic response. I had my senator try to find the Indian govt. agency that they are using to verify the documents and he basically came back and told me that they won't even mention it to him as its a security issue. This whole process is incredibly frustrating. 

 

I am glad your case was resolved within 10 days so I hope ours will be done soon too. Thanks again for sharing your story.