221(g) AP - Is it just me?

[Richard Purves 58]

Quick straw poll: how many people have been put into Administrative Processing at London this year?

 

I've been reading around and it seems like almost everyone has.

[Unlockable 7,315]

How long have you been in AP?

 

Everyone goes through AP. It is just at different lengths. Even if it is a straight forward case with a fast approval there is still a period of AP. 

 

AP overall means they are doing the work required for the case.

 

Are you asking if people are in AP for more than a couple of weeks?

[Richard Purves 58]

I'm wondering at the proportion of immediate yes to immediate AP. I'm aware that even with immediate approval you go through AP for a limited time. It seems to me that going straight to AP is the standard response from London now.

 

My attorney told me that he's had other cases that were 2 to 3 weeks before getting approval, admittedly different countries. Well it'll be three weeks for me on Tuesday 20th and I'm preparing myself for the long haul on this.

It'd be nice if we could put that data into our timelines.

[Unlockable 7,315]

It you got a good interview and was told you were approved you should be good, although 3 weeks is a little long. Usually it is no more than 10 days but something could have come up that they need to work on. 

 

 

[Richard Purves 58]

I wasn't approved straight away though. I was given a 221(g) blue form instead. My point is that they seem to be not approving straight away nearly as much.

[Unlockable 7,315]

Ah, I see. 

[Wuozopo 4,293]

1 hour ago, Richard Purves said:

I wasn't approved straight away though. I was given a 221(g) blue form instead. My point is that they seem to be not approving straight away nearly as much.

 

If you got a 221g form at your interview, then you will not be approved straight away. You got out of the fast lane because something was missing. Right? What was missing? So you are paused with an Administrative Processing status until--

1. The missing piece is sent.
2. Somebody gets it routed to the IV Unit.
3. The officer has time to get back to your case in his "to do" stack.

 

 

Also for London, those that did not get a 221g (because everything needed was there for the officer to review), they ALL will see Administrative Processing status at some point while the final paper shuffling is being done. 

Edited February 17, 2018 by Wuozopo

[Boiler 45,956]

I did not go through AP but that was a very long time ago, everybody has gone through it for many years.

[Wuozopo 4,293]

21 minutes ago, Boiler said:

I did not go through AP but that was a very long time ago, everybody has gone through it for many years.

Because we didn't have any online way to check status. CEAC did not exist. We interviewed and waited for a visa with no interim status information. 

[Boiler 45,956]

5 minutes ago, Wuozopo said:

Because we didn't have any online way to check status. CEAC did not exist. We interviewed and waited for a visa with no interim status information. 

They did not allow computers in the Consulate when I went and this was before smart phones.

[JFH 12,191]

We are comparing apples and oranges here. The OP is applying for an EB-1 visa which is for people with extraordinary ability in their field. As such, the bar is set very high for approval. Most of us here are or were on the spouse or fiancé visa route which does not require us to demonstrate any exceptional talent (although I do think I bake the best cakes this side of the Mississippi and I'm a brilliant wife 😂) - we only have to satisfy some very basic criteria: relationship is genuine, we are not crazy, we don't have TB and we don't have an extensive criminal record. Got those and you're in. But for the genuine relationship part, 99.5% of the population of the U.K. would qualify. We only have to be ordinary, every-day people. The spouse visa process is not intended to weed out people and only grant visas to the top small percentage. It's very difficult to be denied. The EB-1, on the other hand, is designed to be granted to only the best of the best. As such, the interviewer will nitpick and dissect to try to find fault with the application. 

 

The reasons for which EB-1 applicants would receive a 221g do not apply to family-based applicants. 

[Richard Purves 58]

Well this hasn't gone quite the way I'd hoped. So ... yes I got a blue 221(g) form at the end of my interview. If you check my timeline, you'll see I went through the RFE process three times during the I-140 filling process and what you can't see on the timeline was the fact I hit the EB1 requirements before the first RFE was sent. That's why I have a file over 500 pages in size before any USCIS / NVC / DoS additions.

 

I suspect it was a combination of a hostile embassy officer and the fact I've a Saudi Arabian business visa in my passport from 2015.

 

From what I can see a lot of people get the 221(g) because they're missing documentation. I am not one of those, I just got some guy having a bad morning or something. My interview was extremely confrontational and thankfully I kept my cool to about five minutes walk outside of the embassy.

 

The original request was to find out if London was issuing more 221(g) forms for Administrative Processing than has been usual. So far I've seen reported one success and many more AP recommendations. As I understand things the various embassies should NOT be using the 221(g) regularly to contradict USCIS decisions but it's well known that in some countries it's done as a matter of procedure ... even though it technically shouldn't be.

[JFH 12,191]

1 hour ago, Richard Purves said:

 

 

From what I can see a lot of people get the 221(g) because they're missing documentation. I am not one of those, I just got some guy having a bad morning or something.

Because that's pretty much all the majority of us can get 221g for. 

 

I don't think it has anything to do with previous travel. I've lived in 5 other countries and travelled to over 45 others in my career in the airline industry. One of the countries I've lived in is China, not exactly great friends with the USA either. I was asked how long I lived overseas and where during the interview but more out of curiosity than anything else it seemed. 

[Richard Purves 58]

I only mentioned it because the last couple times I did ESTA based travel to the US, I was routinely asked if I'd been to the Middle East in the past five years.

[Boiler 45,956]

Depending where you have been would have made you ineligible to use the VWP.