Calling everyone going thru RIYADH Embassy

[AustinnPawerss 0]

Hello folks please post your comments and experiences faced or facing in Riyadh Embassy Saudi Arabia...anything which can be helpful to others specially people living in the same place.

Anybody from Riyadh embassy got rejected or denied of Immigrant visa...please post your experience that why they denied your visa.

Thanks and best regards

Austinn

[Tariq Jawed 0]

Hello,

I'm from Riyadh, its been more than 7 months since we are waiting for administrative processing to be done... we had the final visa interview on 30 May, 2007 since then we are just waiting and waiting...

dont know how long will it take

Regards

[AustinnPawerss 0]

Hello,

I'm from Riyadh, its been more than 7 months since we are waiting for administrative processing to be done... we had the final visa interview on 30 May, 2007 since then we are just waiting and waiting...

dont know how long will it take

Regards

Dont worry Tariq inshalla it will be soon over just be patient, keep in touch with US Embassy in RIYADH by E-MAIL, coz visiting US Embassy will be a time consuming step...

[KEK 0]

Hi,

I am a US citizen, and my Saudi husband is trying to get his conditional residence. He had his final visa interview appt. on Feb. 12 at the Riyadh consulate. During that time they did not tell him if he was approved or not, and just took his passport for "administrative review" of our case. They told him that once they are done, he can pick it up or have it Fedexed to him (he lives in Jeddah).

They have not finished with the visa yet. We emailed them 2 weeks after his interview (bec. we don't know why they should take his passport for an unknown amt. of time w/o letting him know why). They emailed back and said to give it 2-3 more weeks and try to email them again if we don't hear anything. This is discouraging that it might take as long as 7 months. Does anyone else have any other similar experience or advice?

thank you,

KEKhan

[AustinnPawerss 0]

Hi,

I am a US citizen, and my Saudi husband is trying to get his conditional residence. He had his final visa interview appt. on Feb. 12 at the Riyadh consulate. During that time they did not tell him if he was approved or not, and just took his passport for "administrative review" of our case. They told him that once they are done, he can pick it up or have it Fedexed to him (he lives in Jeddah).

They have not finished with the visa yet. We emailed them 2 weeks after his interview (bec. we don't know why they should take his passport for an unknown amt. of time w/o letting him know why). They emailed back and said to give it 2-3 more weeks and try to email them again if we don't hear anything. This is discouraging that it might take as long as 7 months. Does anyone else have any other similar experience or advice?

thank you,

KEKhan

Dear I got the call in February and am refused by the us consulate, for me its very much upsetting situation right now, it will take 3-6 months officially to get another call, so relax and stay cool, wish you luck in your process, they kept my passport and again when I got a call I thought they will give me a visa but they interviewed me hard again for almost 30 minutes ...but hope your case will be fine.

[KEK 0]

What I find really difficult about our situation is that Saudi Arabia doesn't allow visitor visas. Apparently for some reason I can't even get a family visa bec. of the fact that my husband never got the Saudi marriage permit before our wedding (he couldn't even do that for some reason, I think he said bec. he was not yet 30 years old?) Anyways the whole system over there is really confusing to me, and it seems like one of the hardest situations, as I can't even visit him while we are waiting.

Now the problem is that they took his passport, so he can't even come to see me, or travel elsewhere. We don't want to mess up the possiblity that they could issue the visa soon, by asking for his passport back right now. We are really stuck, except for if I visit him in some Gulf countries where apparently he doesn't need a visa to travel.

Sorry to keep complaining, but I was just wondering others' thoughts on this situation and if anyone has a similar problem. It seems like visiting is so difficult, and it's such a long wait for the whole visa process to not be able to visit once in a while. Well I hope everyone will hear some good news soon about their visa. Thanks,

KEKhan

[AustinnPawerss 0]

What I find really difficult about our situation is that Saudi Arabia doesn't allow visitor visas. Apparently for some reason I can't even get a family visa bec. of the fact that my husband never got the Saudi marriage permit before our wedding (he couldn't even do that for some reason, I think he said bec. he was not yet 30 years old?) Anyways the whole system over there is really confusing to me, and it seems like one of the hardest situations, as I can't even visit him while we are waiting.

Now the problem is that they took his passport, so he can't even come to see me, or travel elsewhere. We don't want to mess up the possiblity that they could issue the visa soon, by asking for his passport back right now. We are really stuck, except for if I visit him in some Gulf countries where apparently he doesn't need a visa to travel.

Sorry to keep complaining, but I was just wondering others' thoughts on this situation and if anyone has a similar problem. It seems like visiting is so difficult, and it's such a long wait for the whole visa process to not be able to visit once in a while. Well I hope everyone will hear some good news soon about their visa. Thanks,

KEKhan

It is really impossible to believe that your husband is not getting the family visa, If your husband is doing a good job or atleast earning 7,000 Sar then there is no question that he is not getting the permit or family visa, in Saudi Arabia age is not at all a show stopper to get the marriage visa.

Dear what ever you told me about the Saudi Law is not acceptable

Good luck to you in ur process.

Take care

Allah Hafiz

[KEK 0]

Hi AustinnPawers,

I hope you don't mind a question- I was wondering if you had applied for the marriage permit, and was it before or after you applied for your immigration visa?

Some websites seem to say that getting the marriage permit can be very difficult. I was wondering how your experience was. We certainly don't want to make things any more complicated (as we have already been married for almost a year, and hopefully getting our visa soon). But it would be nice to know if we could actually get the permit and family visa.

Thanks again for your input. I hope things will look up for your visa soon,

KEKhan

[AustinnPawerss 0]

Hi AustinnPawers,

I hope you don't mind a question- I was wondering if you had applied for the marriage permit, and was it before or after you applied for your immigration visa?

Some websites seem to say that getting the marriage permit can be very difficult. I was wondering how your experience was. We certainly don't want to make things any more complicated (as we have already been married for almost a year, and hopefully getting our visa soon). But it would be nice to know if we could actually get the permit and family visa.

Thanks again for your input. I hope things will look up for your visa soon,

KEKhan

I dont mind any question, you are always welcome.

No, I never applied for the marriage permit before my case refusal, now after getting the refusal I applied for the marriage permit or VISA for wife and in just 24 hours of I got the visa approval and I have sent that document to my wife in States and soon she is travelling for Saudi Arabia.

Dear If you are earning good and working in a good organization in Saudi Arabia then honestly it is not at all a big issue.

May Allah help you to get your case done successfully.

Allah Hafiz

[MoreFreedom 0]

Great! I really thought I am the only one with wife visa in Saudi Arabia, Riyadh Embassy

Well my wife had her interview in the first week of Feb. and they told us it can takes up to four weeks before they send the passport with the visa thorugh Fedex, but a month is over, and I tried emailing them but they told me to stop asking and that they will commnuicate to my wife once they have any updates,

So I don't know what to do now, and why is it only in US Riyadh Embassy where after the interview you still have to wait for long time before they give you the result, I thought they will in the same day as the interview or at most the next day.

Does any one know or have any idea what's going on? my wife isn't saudi, and I am a US Citizen with Approved K3 Visa.

Please share your info here

[KEK 0]

Great! I really thought I am the only one with wife visa in Saudi Arabia, Riyadh Embassy

Well my wife had her interview in the first week of Feb. and they told us it can takes up to four weeks before they send the passport with the visa thorugh Fedex, but a month is over, and I tried emailing them but they told me to stop asking and that they will commnuicate to my wife once they have any updates,

So I don't know what to do now, and why is it only in US Riyadh Embassy where after the interview you still have to wait for long time before they give you the result, I thought they will in the same day as the interview or at most the next day.

Does any one know or have any idea what's going on? my wife isn't saudi, and I am a US Citizen with Approved K3 Visa.

Please share your info here

My husband also had his visa interview at Riyadh; it seemed to go pretty well. He is a Saudi; I am a USC with an approved I-130. His interview was on Feb 12. About 2 weeks after it, we emailed the consulate and they told us that our case is under "administrative review" - (which if you don't know what that is, you can learn a lot by searching other threads on this website). They also told us to email back again 2-3 wks later if we heard nothing. We have emailed them this week to see if there is any progress, but heard nothing yet.

If they do not give us any information (or if they continue to hold my husband's passport with no visa in sight, and w/o communicating with us), we are considering taking our lawyer's advice and contacting a Congressperson for help. I have also read that people on this website have called the Dept. of State to see what is happening with their visas - I might consider doing that also depending on how long we have to wait.

Well good luck to you and your wife - I hope the Riyadh consulate gets their act together soon.

KEKhan

[MoreFreedom 0]

Yes that's what I am thinking to do as well, if I hear nothing for a week or two I will contact my congressman specially that it's election year so I will expect them to be very responsive.

I can't belive this after all we went thourgh there is still a delay to go through, for what? I have been away from my wife for over two years, enough is enough

But do you know if anyone got a visa from Riyadh embassy recently?

And how long are we looking at for the average wait time?

Also how can someone know if they are in AP review?

Please help I am going cruzy............

Edited March 10, 2008 by MoreFreedom

[KEK 0]

Yeah I know the feeling - my husband and I have lived apart for over 5 years now (he had a work contract at home, and I was going through college). Luckly we were able to take regular vacations, but now since the consulate has taken his passport and I have a full time job (and also it seems pretty complicated for me to get a visa to get into KSA), I am getting more impatient and upset about not being able to see each other. I am hoping to get a week off to see him in Dubai (apparently he can travel to Gulf countries with no passport, that is one blessing).

The way we knew that we were in administrative review is that the consulate replied to our emails 2 wks ago and said that is the reason for the delay (it is the most common reason as far as I know, esp. if there didn't seem to be any problem with the case during the interview). They also said to write back in 2-3 wks, so here we are trying to write to them all week, w/ no reply back yet. If they don't write back to us next week I will contact the Congressman here.

From this website, I gather that AR can take weeks, months, or in the most extreme cases, over a year. Our process has seemed to go smoothly so far, so I'm hoping it will be "months" in our case, seeing as it has already been a month now already. I don't know anyone who has gotten a visa from the Riyadh embassy on thie site; it doesn't seem like there are too many people from KSA, and most of us seem to be stuck somewhere in the process.

My husband has a friend in KSA who won the diversity visa lottery, and got his immigrant visa in Riyadh. He had a "false hit" on his name, and they had to do an extra interview for that. But then he got his visa after only ~3wks and was able to come to US. I guess even the diversity visa has priority over the CR-1. Go figure, who knows maybe they are particularly backed up in Riyadh right now. My husband just emailed them again about either getting some news or getting his passport - so we will wait and see....

KEKhan

[AustinnPawerss 0]

Folks please be patient AR takes time and in normal cases it takes some where 3-6 months so relax, do not hammer them by sending mail every week, by sending mail every week can cuase delay so my recomandation is 1 mail in one month.

Dont worry once they will make ur passport ready with visa they will contact you by the given information.

so relax and Inshalla ALLAH WILL HELP US.....

PEACEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE

[KEK 0]

Hi,

I know what you are saying and I have thought of that also. I don't want to get on the consulate's bad side either.

Our problem is that we don't want them holding the passport if they know it is going to be months and months (and not telling us that either). My husband also did ask around about the family visa for me to come visit him, but has been told by multiple people that 1) it takes a long time, 2) you need money or connections to get it, and 3) we may get in trouble for getting married before getting the permit. He seems to think this is due to the fact that he is an actual Saudi (family lived there for generations), whereas for people who more recently immigrated there, they seem to care less if they marry outside than if actual Saudis do.

He was told by one person that it's better to wait until he is in the US and then try to apply for the family visa for me at the Saudi embassy here (they won't mess with us there supposedly). Anyways he is still asking around and trying to gather more information, but we are both afriad that he could get into trouble and are naturally cautious about that whole idea.

Which leaves us for the time being: - he can't come here to visit, and I can't go there to visit. We can only go to Gulf places like Bahrain or Dubai (where he doesn't need a passport to travel), and pay extravagant amounts for plane tickets and hotels, to be able to see each other. That is why we continue to bother the consulate, in order to either get some info. about the visa, or to just get the passport back for us to use as we continue to wait...

Talk about going crazy - I am already long gone, haha

Thanks for your input and support,

KEKhan