Additional evidence requested at London Embassy Interview

[NeilW 9]

Hi,

 

I attended my visa interview in London on November 22nd and unfortunately they asked for a further piece of evidence. They kept my passport.

 

I have engaged an attorney to help with this, and submitted the evidence via the courier specified. The evidence arrived with the US embassy in London yesterday morning (Dec 5th). Does anyone know typically what I can expect from here in terms of turn around time and decision making with this additional evidence?

 

Many thanks

[Ctavarez90 244]

What was the additional evidence they requested if you don’t mind me asking?

[Chancy 6,241]

*** Moved from IR1/CR1 Process & Procedures to the UK regional forum, for country-specific input ***

 

[NeilW 9]

21 minutes ago, Ctavarez90 said:

What was the additional evidence they requested if you don’t mind me asking?

Qatar police clearance certificate (which I am not eligible for per Qatar rules, and I submitted evidence to this effect at NVC stage and was DQ'd on the strength of that evidence).

 

I have since procured a letter from an agency in Qatar which has been legally attested by the Qatar ministry of Foreign Affairs. The letter states that I'm not eligible for a PCC and why. The why is that I was never a permanent resident there.

[Wuozopo 4,293]

2 hours ago, NeilW said:

Hi,

 

I attended my visa interview in London on November 22nd and unfortunately they asked for a further piece of evidence. They kept my passport.

 

I have engaged an attorney to help with this, and submitted the evidence via the courier specified. The evidence arrived with the US embassy in London yesterday morning (Dec 5th). Does anyone know typically what I can expect from here in terms of turn around time and decision making with this additional evidence?

 

Many thanks

Usually within a week if they accept your lack of police certificate. The Dept of State acts like one is available to you. Did that application not work.

https://travel.state.gov/content/travel/en/us-visas/Visa-Reciprocity-and-Civil-Documents-by-Country/Qatar.html

Police certificate is down that page.

[NeilW 9]

5 minutes ago, Wuozopo said:

Usually within a week if they accept your lack of police certificate. The Dept of State acts like one is available to you. Did that application not work.

https://travel.state.gov/content/travel/en/us-visas/Visa-Reciprocity-and-Civil-Documents-by-Country/Qatar.html

Police certificate is down that page.

You say within a week if they accept it. What if they don't accept it? Will they proactively contact me to say so within the week?

 

If they don't accept it I honestly do not know what I can do next. The letter I submitted included a covering letter from an immigration attorney so hopefully that will also hold some weight.

 

 

The information on the page you shared is incomplete in that it tells you how to obtain one (roughly), but does not tell you what the eligibility criteria are. When you look on the Qatar ministry of Interior website it gives you the criteria - which I do not meet (having never been a resident).

 

I did attempt to obtain one anyway following the procedure, I enclosed all the things required, i.e. a letter asking for the PCC, details of my entries and exits, copies of my passport from the time, fingerprints from a UK police station, a return envelope, and the fee. The letter was returned to me unopened! But as I've said, I don't meet the criteria anyway so even if they had opened the letter I suspect it would have been ignored.

 

At the interview I presented all this information, including the returned unopened letter which had all the postage stamps on it, and the receipt showing I genuinely paid for the postage. The agent at the interview simply said, its strange they wouldn't open it. I couldn't disagree with him.

[Pat2021 43]

If you were not a resident - why are they asking for the certificate?
Usually you only need to provide police clearance certificates for countries in which you resided 12 months or longer.

How did you stay in Qatar for that long without being a resident?

[Wuozopo 4,293]

10 minutes ago, NeilW said:

You say within a week if they accept it. What if they don't accept it? Will they proactively contact me to say so within the week?

I don’t know. In a dozen years on this forum, I’ve never seen a case of rejecting the lacking evidence. Usually it is something like wrong birth certificate (not long form), or a need to upload a W2 for the financials. Sounds like you did your due diligence. Let it ride for a week and take a short break from worrying. It could be fine. 

[NeilW 9]

Just now, Pat2021 said:

If you were not a resident - why are they asking for the certificate?
Usually you only need to provide police clearance certificates for countries in which you resided 12 months or longer.

How did you stay in Qatar for that long without being a resident?

I went to school there between 1999 and 2001. The DS-260 required all my schooling from the age of 16. I tried to submit it but it forced me to put an address in Qatar because of the school address. We did have rental accommodation there for the 2 year period so I put that down. But it remains true that I was never there for more than 5 months at any one time, I always left for all school holidays, and we kept the same permanent residence in the UK throughout - which we returned to at Christmas, Easter, summer, etc. Accordingly I did not need to have a residence permit. My father did as he did not leave as often as he worked there.

 

In retrospect I may have been better off putting the address down for shorter periods rather than the 2 years end to end, but I didn't want it to look like I was "gaming" the system and I submitted a lot of supporting evidence, including my passport of the time, to show I wasn't resident, left very regularly, and that I wasn't eligible for a Qatar PCC. As I say, it was enough to get DQ'd.

[NeilW 9]

11 minutes ago, Wuozopo said:

I don’t know. In a dozen years on this forum, I’ve never seen a case of rejecting the lacking evidence. Usually it is something like wrong birth certificate (not long form), or a need to upload a W2 for the financials. Sounds like you did your due diligence. Let it ride for a week and take a short break from worrying. It could be fine. 

That is comforting, if I correctly understand you. I think you are saying that lacking evidence is typically accepted where good evidence and explanations are provided? Is that so?

 

Taking a break from worrying is the hard part!

[Wuozopo 4,293]

1 hour ago, NeilW said:

That is comforting, if I correctly understand you. I think you are saying that lacking evidence is typically accepted where good evidence and explanations are provided? Is that so?

 

Taking a break from worrying is the hard part!

Actually I was saying every case I have read in the UK forum was an easy to fix situation…supply what was asked for….birth certificate, fix the financials…and done. Your case is different so I have nothing I remember like yours because you can’t supply what they asked for. But you provided the letter from Qatar saying you aren’t allowed one so that should be taken into consideration. How was your UK record? Did you get “No Trace”?  
 

This will all get sorted, but putting a timeframe to a harder case is difficult to predict. But you should rest your brain for a week and see if it sorts quickly. watch your CEAC updates for “issued”.

[NeilW 9]

28 minutes ago, Wuozopo said:

Actually I was saying every case I have read in the UK forum was an easy to fix situation…supply what was asked for….birth certificate, fix the financials…and done. Your case is different so I have nothing I remember like yours because you can’t supply what they asked for. But you provided the letter from Qatar saying you aren’t allowed one so that should be taken into consideration. How was your UK record? Did you get “No Trace”?  
 

This will all get sorted, but putting a timeframe to a harder case is difficult to predict. But you should rest your brain for a week and see if it sorts quickly. watch your CEAC updates for “issued”.

Yep, No Trace for my UK one - my attorney noted that in his covering letter.

 

Where exactly would I see the CEAC updates? When I log in to CEAC it doesn't appear to have a status field other than that my case is "Currently At: London".

[Chancy 6,241]

6 hours ago, NeilW said:

Where exactly would I see the CEAC updates?

 

Enter your LND case number here (no need to log in) -- https://ceac.state.gov/CEACStatTracker/Status.aspx

 

[NeilW 9]

Ok so I got a response from the Embassy. The response simply said "You must provide a PCC or a letter from the Qatari government explaining that I cannot obtain one".

 

I am at a complete loss here, I am being asked to provide something I cannot obtain. I've really done everything I can think of.

 

I've phoned the Qatari embassy a dozen times, they do not answer.

 

Does anyone have any ideas?

[Pat2021 43]

57 minutes ago, NeilW said:

"a letter from the Qatari government explaining that I cannot obtain one".

On 12/6/2022 at 2:36 PM, NeilW said:

I have since procured a letter from an agency in Qatar which has been legally attested by the Qatar ministry of Foreign Affairs. The letter states that I'm not eligible for a PCC and why. The why is that I was never a permanent resident there.

This to me indicates that it should be what they're asking for.
As they're not accepting it, all I can think of is to contact your congressperson.