221g for Immigrant visa London

[katy01 3]

Hi, anyone here can share experience on getting 221g for a greencard visa? this was at the London embassy but I am happy to hear any story.

 

at interview they were just given the 221g with the circles for further admin processing checked off only. not asked to give further info or anything. I could share more about me but would rather hear more if anyone has any experience same/similar to share..... thank you...

[geowrian 22,337]

There's no green card visa. There are various immigrant and non-immigrant visas. What visa specifically was applied for?

 

A 221(g) after an interview is not unusual. It means they have to complete additional review or processing before they can determine eligibility for the visa. This could be verification of documents, background checks, additional review by a supervisor or counsel, etc.

There's no fixed timeline for how long that could take.

[katy01 3]

@geowrian thanks, I'm just looking for anyone with the same / similar experience to share theirs with me. anyone who went for interview for an immigrant visa in London and got 221g. alternatively even if it wasn't in London I still want to hear your experience.

[SanjaAlex 248]

You need to be more specific about your case so people could help you properly. What kind of a visa was it? How did the interview went? Any red flags in your case? What was told by the CO, if anything, when given 221g? I understand you just want to hear experiences, and I can't give you any as I'm not on that stage yet, but in order for other people to help you more details are needed. Best of luck 

[katy01 3]

Hi @SanjaAlex thanks for your reply as well! I appreciate that people are wanting to help, thats great. to be honest the story is very very long and Id rather not share all my details, not just yet. of course I understand that without details people can't help /speculate on my case but thats ok as I just wanted, as you said, for people to share their own experience with me - if they had any same one.

 

the CO just said we'll contact you by email. when probed again, like to try and get a further response / more details from the CO, the CO smiled in a kind of 'I already told you no point probing' kind of way, and said the same again: we'll contact you by email. they kept the passport. the visa is an immigrant visa, employment based. interview seemed to go well but the CO was very very dry, no response to any of my family member's responses, so not a friendly experience. but in terms of what my family member answered, it was all true and accurate, no stumbling in responses or forgetting anything, even though the CO asked questions by jumping around the timeline.  

 

thank you again

 

[JFH 12,190]

The thing is, 221(g) and administrative processing are catch-all terms for “we can’t issue this visa yet” and there are hundreds of reasons why. If the medical results haven’t been delivered to the embassy on time, if additional security checks are needed based on the applicant’s work history or travel history, if the applicant has a name similar to someone on the “no fly” list, if the applicant has had previous legal issues, previous visa issues (denials, refusals, revocations, etc), if documents need additional verification, etc, etc, etc. All of these will lead to a 221(g). 

 

It’s better if the applicant themselves asks the question here and we can find out how the interview went and what was said rather than getting a third party, who wasn’t present, to do the posting. Often we can spot clues since almost all of us here have been through at least one visa interview at a US embassy somewhere in the world. 

 

To get good information out, you need to put good information in. 

[katy01 3]

hi @JFH , thanks for your reply. I appreciate what you are saying but, its ok, I am not really looking for people to just speculate on my case. thats why its not necessary to write a word for word of what happened on the day and what was said. I already had all of that info from my family member, and we then discussed it all word for word, step by step of what happened on the day, with our lawyer. I was more just reaching out for others to share their experience as I have already said. 

 

Im not really looking for clues per say of why this has happened, though its nice to speculate, it was more just I am really interested to know what others' experiences have been. we have a pretty clear idea of the multiple reasons why it could be this way. I guess I just want to hear from others, and how long it took them. if someone can provide London specific timelines and experiences that would be ideal. if not as I said I am happy to hear from others in any country. we are quite sure it is history checks and possibly background checks, but again, we aren't too interested in speculating, as we have done that with our lawyer. just more interested in the process and someone else's experience to hear first hand.

 

nonetheless, hearing what you said is nice to see!

 

If you have from experience, or from someone else's experience - or pure forum experience from having been here a while as I can see you have - "timelines" for certain possibilities (such as background checks, or previous visas etc) then by all means please share. (i.e., "from what I've seen most background checks = x days/months, most visa checks = x...) But this kind of info doesn't really exist, which is why the most useful thing is just to hear pure experiences from different people.

 

so yeah we'd really just like to hear from someone who has been through it, and as I said if it is specifically London embassy then all the better, but all the same happy to hear from anyone at all and their experience. this would be the most helpful!

 

thanks a lot anyway for your reply. everything helps. this is very tough for us and we just want what everyone on this forum wants.... ❤️  

 

[JFH 12,190]

The thing is, every case is different. I was in administrative processing for 2 days. We have members here who have spent years, yes you read that correctly - years, in administrative processing. It’s a case of “how long is a piece of string?” Because no two people are the same, no two timelines will be the same. I’m struggling what help it would be to the individual to know that someone who went through London spent x days in AP when their case is completely different and the reason for AP was completely different. 

 

As you are fast discovering, there is nothing “standard” about this process and other people’s timelines are meaningless. If the AP is because they are waiting for additional checks to be completed on the applicant’s background, it will take as long as it takes for that information to be returned to the embassy by whomever was asked to provide it. Many of the AP timescales are controlled by random external factors and even the embassy doesn’t know how long it will take. 

 

To put it into context, the question you are asking is like a pregnant woman asking other women “how long were you in labor because i would like to know how long I will be in labor?”. Who can answer that? No one. You will get as many different answers as there are people that you ask. 

[katy01 3]

@JFH hi! Yeah that’s right about your analogy, but I’m not looking for people to share experience so I can then gauge what mine will be like. I just want to know what someone else’s experience was that’s all. All info is useful. 

Ive read through and the K1 forum was very useful just to read different peoples experiences. But after searching for any experience more alike to mine, found none. (Immigrant visa and London if possible)

therefore I made this post. 

Sorry if this sounds rude now but I don’t want to repeat myself again about what I’m asking.  if you or anyone look at my posts I’ve said the same thing about ten times: I just want peoples experience, and it’s not for comparing it to myself. I simply just want anyone who can, to share. That’s all. I don’t want opinions on myself or clues or anything I’m literally just curious if anyone wants to share. As I said all the better if it’s london if it’s not that’s fine. 

 

Thanks a a lot for trying to help, I appreciate that.  but yeah it’s ok I very much understand the process, been in this a very long time, so all I want is just someone to share a similar experience. Thanks again

[Boiler 45,761]

I must have seen dozens of cases reported here and elsewhere involving London.

 

Some are resolved within a few days, most within a month or so, others well are not resolvable so no visa is ever issued.

 

[geowrian 22,337]

There are many people who have gone through the same thing. In the 2018 fiscal year alone, there were 341,128 immigrant visa cases that received a 221(g). See https://travel.state.gov/content/dam/visas/Statistics/AnnualReports/FY2018AnnualReport/FY18AnnualReport - TableXX.pdf.

There's no specific number for those who went through London, but it would be a proportion of that.

 

I understand not wanting to divulge too many details. But very basic information is missing here. There's simply no way to provide any meaningful response or comparable 221(g) experience without those details.

But if you just want to read about people's experiences with a 221(g) (no comparison or relevance to your own case), I think you would find more of that via searching the forums. For example: https://www.visajourney.com/sitesearch/?cx=partner-pub-3407508467788263%3A9725800110&cof=FORID%3A10&ie=UTF-8&q=london+221g&sa=Search

Edited May 4, 2019 by geowrian

[Crazy Cat 41,985]

5 hours ago, katy01 said:

so yeah we'd really just like to hear from someone who has been through it, and as I said if it is specifically London embassy then all the better, but all the same happy to hear from anyone at all and their experience. this would be the most helpful!

This site is full of people who received 221gs........just use the search function.....

[Ben&Zian 4,398]

Always like pulling teeth even for the most basic info.

[Ash.1101 1,756]

Honestly if you aren't willing to give any information, why would you expect other people to tell their stories on their 221g's? 

People who receive 221g's for admin processing could go from 2 days to years, and the ones that have it for years usually have a story that's fairly personal, that is long, and that they don't always want to talk about, much like yourself.

Please understand that without any information to go on, you will just be told that AP can be for any reason and that sometimes people don't know why, or that it can be for specific reasons such as needing more documentation or sending in a missing file that is required for adjudication.

Now if you said something like "I was giving a 221g and my case has a couple of criminal records/cautions" you're more likely to get responses of people wanting to share their stories.  

[SalishSea 17,980]

Since you're unwilling to give even a shred of meaningful info about your case, we can only speculate and guess.

 

My guess is that the applicant in London was born/has roots in one of the countries on the "state sponsor of terrorism" list, or one of their close allies.  Do I win the prize?