Travel Ban Support Group

[Muhammad&Mansory 117]

Just now, NJ515 said:

Thanks for the info about Pars.  I'll let you know if I gleam any additional info... 1 year!  October is so far away.

Every case is different; hopefully you get useful info. Let's hope we do not wait for a year for us, it's been more than 11 months. It is killing us and killing our dreams  

[Muhammad&Mansory 117]

Hello everyone, 

 

a while ago I asked about obtaining ITIN. I am happy to tell you that I finally got my wife's ITIN in the mail  and I will be able to amend last year's taxes as well as include her in the coming years. 

 

I highly recommend you try to get this done. After a couple of attempts, I was successful. 

 

I had my wife make a photocopy of her passport and then notarize/authenticate it from the issuing agency. She just went to the immigration office in her country and asked them to put their stamp. Then she translated it via a sworn translator. 

We filled out form W-7 and she signed it. Now she had ITIN that I can use to include her in my tax return and get back a few grands  

 

All the best 

[Yamen 10]

2 hours ago, Muhammad&Mansory said:

Hello everyone, 

 

a while ago I asked about obtaining ITIN. I am happy to tell you that I finally got my wife's ITIN in the mail  and I will be able to amend last year's taxes as well as include her in the coming years. 

 

I highly recommend you try to get this done. After a couple of attempts, I was successful. 

 

I had my wife make a photocopy of her passport and then notarize/authenticate it from the issuing agency. She just went to the immigration office in her country and asked them to put their stamp. Then she translated it via a sworn translator. 

We filled out form W-7 and she signed it. Now she had ITIN that I can use to include her in my tax return and get back a few grands  

 

All the best 

Yeah. I have filed tax id number , form W-7, for my wife for this year as well.

[JessM28 62]

15 hours ago, Queen1990 said:

@JessM28 yes she is from the travel ban country and they said she is not missing anything else that she just needs to wait 2-6 months for the waiver. I just wanted to know if it was normal for it to go to transfer then refused ?

 

15 hours ago, Queen1990 said:

We weren’t told to fill out a ds-5535 .. what is that for ?

I thought most people from travel ban countries were getting the ds-5535 (supplemental questions)- these are questions asking even more about travel history, it asks you to go further back in your work and living address history (then the ds-260) and it also asks for social media user names, email addresses and things like that. Usually it is given (a physical copy or an email) right after the interview. I would suggest that your sister tries to email the embassy and ask if they need ds-5535 and see if that would bump her to Administrative processing status- I also I would suggest that the petitioner follows up with a member of Congress and asks them to inquire about the case. 

[Mnj11 29]

2 hours ago, JessM28 said:

 

I thought most people from travel ban countries were getting the ds-5535 (supplemental questions)- these are questions asking even more about travel history, it asks you to go further back in your work and living address history (then the ds-260) and it also asks for social media user names, email addresses and things like that. Usually it is given (a physical copy or an email) right after the interview. I would suggest that your sister tries to email the embassy and ask if they need ds-5535 and see if that would bump her to Administrative processing status- I also I would suggest that the petitioner follows up with a member of Congress and asks them to inquire about the case. 

Unfortunately, they don't always ask for the DS-5535. For e.g. in our case, they didn't ask for it during or after the interview. After I found this thread, we even emailed the embassy asking them if we should send one and they didn't acknowledge that question at all, instead replied back with a generic template. 

[JessM28 62]

3 minutes ago, Mnj11 said:

Unfortunately, they don't always ask for the DS-5535. For e.g. in our case, they didn't ask for it during or after the interview. After I found this thread, we even emailed the embassy asking them if we should send one and they didn't acknowledge that question at all, instead replied back with a generic template. 

Good to know- and is your status "Refused" or "Administrative Processing"? I still think in a lot of cases that there is not a set procedure for embassies to follow on how to handle travel ban cases. 

[Mnj11 29]

Just now, JessM28 said:

Good to know- and is your status "Refused" or "Administrative Processing"? I still think in a lot of cases that there is not a set procedure for embassies to follow on how to handle travel ban cases. 

It is still "REFUSED". I just wish someone actually took a few minutes to check the details of the case before replying back. I can understand that they have a lot of cases but I doubt the inquiries vs cases are one to one. 

[Cm3957 3]

what I got from the embassy after asking if our case is under AP 

[Queen1990 2]

4 hours ago, Mnj11 said:

It is still "REFUSED". I just wish someone actually took a few minutes to check the details of the case before replying back. I can understand that they have a lot of cases but I doubt the inquiries vs cases are one to one. 

Same here after AP and transferring the case is now saying refused. But it was updated again yesterday so maybe good news. 

[salhasl 113]

So on basis of the few posts above, I am hearing that some of you had to fill out DS-5535, some didnt. Even in the same embassy some did, some didnt. Which is very odd. Because since all are travel ban related AP, the process should be standardized. One possible explanation is that they dont actually start processing until its "your turn". And when they do, they will ask for DS5535. That means, a vast majority of the time, you are just waiting in line. Someone who got the visa recently told me that they requested the DS 5535 again a month or so before the visa was issued. So the actual time to do the background check is really negligible. Most of the time in AP is spent just waiting for someone to pickup your file. Its atrocious. 

[salhasl 113]

Just read the case documents here: https://www.pacermonitor.com/public/case/23929206/Emami_v_Nielsen_et_al

 

The government is asking for more time - 3 more weeks. They say the DOS will be releasing a lot more statistics regarding waivers in the next 3 weeks. 

 

Hopefully that should shed some light.

[JessM28 62]

17 hours ago, Cm3957 said:

what I got from the embassy after asking if our case is under AP 

Wow- they cannot even write complete/correct sentences! Our 2 months in AP is Monday and I plan to email the Madrid embassy. I have decided to walk the middle line of mentioning the CNN article that was about this case but not posting the actual link (following the Senator's advice). I will let you know what they say in response... 

[JessM28 62]

14 hours ago, salhasl said:

So on basis of the few posts above, I am hearing that some of you had to fill out DS-5535, some didnt. Even in the same embassy some did, some didnt. Which is very odd. Because since all are travel ban related AP, the process should be standardized. One possible explanation is that they dont actually start processing until its "your turn". And when they do, they will ask for DS5535. That means, a vast majority of the time, you are just waiting in line. Someone who got the visa recently told me that they requested the DS 5535 again a month or so before the visa was issued. So the actual time to do the background check is really negligible. Most of the time in AP is spent just waiting for someone to pickup your file. Its atrocious. 

Interesting- but then do you think the waiting lines are different based on type of visa? Because at least two of us are going through the Madrid Embassy- my husband is CR-1 and got the ds-5535 on the day of his interview but the other couple that is a k-1 did not receive yet.

 

Do you think that education/ work history has anything to do with how soon you get the ds-5535? 

 

It would be nice if VJ added a ds-5535 to the timeline so we could look for trends- any ideas who we would need to contact to see about requesting that? 

9 hours ago, salhasl said:

Just read the case documents here: https://www.pacermonitor.com/public/case/23929206/Emami_v_Nielsen_et_al

 

The government is asking for more time - 3 more weeks. They say the DOS will be releasing a lot more statistics regarding waivers in the next 3 weeks. 

 

Hopefully that should shed some light.

That's great! Please keep us posted if you see the numbers released. 

[salhasl 113]

1 hour ago, JessM28 said:

Interesting- but then do you think the waiting lines are different based on type of visa? Because at least two of us are going through the Madrid Embassy- my husband is CR-1 and got the ds-5535 on the day of his interview but the other couple that is a k-1 did not receive yet.

 

Do you think that education/ work history has anything to do with how soon you get the ds-5535? 

 

It would be nice if VJ added a ds-5535 to the timeline so we could look for trends- any ideas who we would need to contact to see about requesting that? 

That's great! Please keep us posted if you see the numbers released. 

I dont think the waiting lines are different for IR1 vs K1. They seem to be different for B1s, since I have seen a few B1s from travel ban countries being issued within a couple months, but they could have been exceptions. One of the wierdest B1 I had seen was for a Iranian guy who was attending a competition for space related rocket designs. You would think that would be a big red flag, but here we are. 

 

In regards to the case, 

I was wondering why they want the report released before discovery. I wonder if they triggered a temporary surge for yemenis just to get those numbers high. 

 

Are there people here waiting 1+ year? I saw another Syrian national get hers after 1 year and 2 months in AP. Are there people here who interviewed between Jan and April of 2018? 

 

[JessM28 62]

19 minutes ago, salhasl said:

Are there people here waiting 1+ year? I saw another Syrian national get hers after 1 year and 2 months in AP. Are there people here who interviewed between Jan and April of 2018? 

 

Yes my Iranian friend had her interview in April 2018. She was considered for waiver evaluation since June 2018 and got the ds-5535 in September 2018.