Email from the Embassy

[Pam&Mbaye 0]

As most of you know my husband is from Kenya and interviewed in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia where he works. Long story short he interviewed, they kept his passport and was told he could collect his visa in two weeks, he was never given a 221g or issued anything that stated he was under administrative processing. He was given a card which would allow him to collect his visa at the embassy once he was contacted. I sent the embassy an email after one month had passed and this was the reply I received:

Thanks for your inquiry, regarding your husband's immigrant visa case. Your husband's case is still under administrative processing and I have no idea how long will take to complete. As soon as his case is approve for processing immigrant visa, I will notify him. Regards,

GK

Sorry to sound ignorant of the facts but is this administrative processing that could take months even years to process? Oh and by the way the embassy can't tell me what administrative processing is because I asked the question and was told administrative processing is "administrative processing". I do know his passport is still at the embassy and haven't gone anywhere. Oh yeah and by the way to make this story even more interesting, his employer has frozen his salary until he returns his passport back to the company, so next month they will freeze it again if he doesn't present his passport to his company.

Has anyone had anything like this happen before? It would be a great help if I can get some responses to my email because at this point I don't understand how administrative processing work when you don't have a 221g issued. I thought they at least had to give you a 221g.

Thanks!

[MaryandMian 1]

Administrative Processing does not have a time frame. I know in Islamabad most cases are 6 -9 months unless they have a common name, name hit or other reasons for them to check further. Almost all cases are given either one or two form letters that states they are in AP after their interview but a few persons have reported no papers were issued at the time. I would personally contact his company and give them a copy of your email from the embassy/consulate and tell the company that his passport is still with them for processing.

Embassies/consulates usually keep the passports to keep a person from traveling while in AR/AP since the movement will void the checks in process since it would require new security checks for the new travels. Good luck.

Mary

[Pam&Mbaye 0]

Administrative Processing does not have a time frame. I know in Islamabad most cases are 6 -9 months unless they have a common name, name hit or other reasons for them to check further. Almost all cases are given either one or two form letters that states they are in AP after their interview but a few persons have reported no papers were issued at the time. I would personally contact his company and give them a copy of your email from the embassy/consulate and tell the company that his passport is still with them for processing.

Embassies/consulates usually keep the passports to keep a person from traveling while in AR/AP since the movement will void the checks in process since it would require new security checks for the new travels. Good luck.

Mary

Thanks Mary but I have already told the embassy about the situation about his passport and I was told that they are here to serve me the American citizen and there is nothing they can do about his situation other then put a note on his file. The thing is before they took his passport my husband stated to them that there would be a problem if it was kept for a long period of time and he was assured it shouldn't take longer then two weeks to get his visa, they had approved him. He did explain the situation to his employer and gave them documentation from the embassy and they did not care , so you see it seems to me the embassy isn't worried about it and his employer doesn't care. I find it odd he was told he was approved for his visa and not given a 221g if they were putting him in administrative processing and this is where my confusion lies.

[MaryandMian 1]

CR-1 cases have to have all the clearances done since their visa does not have an AOS processing once in the states. I feel for you and know of one person that went thru another embassy and had the same problem with them holding his passport. I know you cannot rush AP and the emails are canned responses. Nothing I can say but I will be thinking of you both during this time. Take care.

[Pam&Mbaye 0]

CR-1 cases have to have all the clearances done since their visa does not have an AOS processing once in the states. I feel for you and know of one person that went thru another embassy and had the same problem with them holding his passport. I know you cannot rush AP and the emails are canned responses. Nothing I can say but I will be thinking of you both during this time. Take care.

A lightbulb just went off in my head, you gave me a different way of looking at this. I really hadn't thought about the AOS, and the fact that he will have his GC when he gets here, I seem to overlook that fact! Thanks for the reminder I needed it and thanks for your thoughts. Sometimes all it takes is a reminder and to hear the words from someone else. It would make things easier if he were here with me.

Thanks again!

[simple_male 1]

CR-1 cases have to have all the clearances done since their visa does not have an AOS processing once in the states. I feel for you and know of one person that went thru another embassy and had the same problem with them holding his passport. I know you cannot rush AP and the emails are canned responses. Nothing I can say but I will be thinking of you both during this time. Take care.

A lightbulb just went off in my head, you gave me a different way of looking at this. I really hadn't thought about the AOS, and the fact that he will have his GC when he gets here, I seem to overlook that fact! Thanks for the reminder I needed it and thanks for your thoughts. Sometimes all it takes is a reminder and to hear the words from someone else. It would make things easier if he were here with me.

Thanks again!

You are not the only one who has experienced this. Please stay strong, you will hear the good news soon. Mary experienced it first hand, so her advices would be the best one you can get here. We are here for you as friends.

Edited June 15, 2007 by simple_male

[Pam&Mbaye 0]

CR-1 cases have to have all the clearances done since their visa does not have an AOS processing once in the states. I feel for you and know of one person that went thru another embassy and had the same problem with them holding his passport. I know you cannot rush AP and the emails are canned responses. Nothing I can say but I will be thinking of you both during this time. Take care.

A lightbulb just went off in my head, you gave me a different way of looking at this. I really hadn't thought about the AOS, and the fact that he will have his GC when he gets here, I seem to overlook that fact! Thanks for the reminder I needed it and thanks for your thoughts. Sometimes all it takes is a reminder and to hear the words from someone else. It would make things easier if he were here with me.

Thanks again!

You are not the only one who has experienced this. Please stay strong, you will hear the good news soon. Mary experienced it first hand, so her advices would be the best one you can get here. We are here for you as friends.

Simple, thanks for the encouragement and it's really nice knowing that there are people like yourself and others who are there to listen and give advice, I really do appreciate it. Thanks again

[kiny 0]

If it makes you feel any better, my husband is in AP for almost four months now and he was told at the time of the interview that he will get his visa in two weeks and they just put him in AP without telling us, in fact they lied to us...anyway, we are completely fed up of this process as i basically changed my whole life due to this visa thing....I was happily living with him in Canada on a long visit befoer we decided to move to the US, so i sponsosred him and moved back to the States, found a job and God knows how many other hardships i went through (just had a surgery with major complications) and other experiences where i could not have him on my side...after hte interview we were so happy that our probs were fnally over but then the actual nightmare of the AP started. The consulate never tells us anything and we are sick of contacting the department of state as they always give us the same reply that it might take a few weeks, months or up to a year as know one knows when all the agencies will complete the clearances...also, unfortuantely my husband has a very common last name...now I have contacted my congressman and they are doing their congressional inquiry and will give us a reply in a few days so lets see wut happens (even though we are not counting on it), but all i can say to u is to be strong...no one can understand wut u are going through but i can, cuz every second of my life revolves around this visa and the wait for my husband to come here so we can also start living again...I don't feel like iam really living anymore, feels more like just surviving for the heck of surviving

Good luck and just hang in there...we are here to share if u need any help...