In feb my Husband tried to enter the country for a visit. At the time we did not know that he was not supposed to come visit on his VWP. He was then cuffed spent the night in an airport jail and sent back to London. We have had our civil marriage a year before this, and he was coming for the Catholic prepartions to have the Catholic wedding. He was planing on going in and out of the country to comply with the visa waiver. Well we learned the hard way. We had not idea that was not possible. He was imediately deported, removed, or exluded at the airport here in Houston. Does any one know what this is called? Im sure its one of thoes three. Now we are forced to file for him just so that he can come in to have ur religious wedding. My question is. Since we have to file a waiver does any one know when and where these get apprved if your interview is in London. We were told that he has to take the waiver with him when he goes to his interview but...... if he does get approved for a visa do they process the waiver the same day? How long does it normaly take? Does any know the procees?

Hi,

Not really familiar with the I-212 but I found this on the london site. Might help you some. http://www.usembassy.org.uk/cons_new/visa/niv/add_req.html

You might also try immigrate2us.net. They have an I-212 section in their forum.


Good luck,
Baileyj

Sorry to hear that. As far as I know you must file the I-212 to the district office where your deportation was held. You can also apply through a US consul where your interview will be held, that is if the consul will require you to do so. They should be able to do a recommendation whether you must be granted a permission to apply for a visa. They will then forward your I-212 application to the USCIS, and the final decision will come from the USCIS. If I am not mistaken, your visa approval will be delayed because you still have to wait for your I-212 approval. Your approval will be dependent on how you will present your case to them, so it's up to you if you want to get help from an immigration lawyer or not. I-212 processing usually takes 6 to 12 months. Mine is on the 6th month now, but I haven't heard anything from USCIS. I hope this helps you in a way. You can refer to USCIS website for the I-212 form.

Thanks for your responce. At least I know not to expect any visa right away at the interview. Do you know if all waivers take the same leangth or do they vary from consulate to consulate? In this case London. UK?

Hmmm, just imagine the scenario. He will file the waiver through the interviewing consul, then the consul will send it to USCIS for processing, then consider the processing time of 6 to 12 months or worse years. Once you have an approved waiver, it is still the consul's discretion whether to give you a visa or not. I think a waiver is just one qualification for getting a visa, since it is a permission to reapply for admission to US (for I-212). When you have a visa already you need to present your waiver with your visa at the port of entry.

There are a few types of waivers for different kinds of visas. I am not very familiar with others. In my case, I only filed I-212. I hope this helps you in a way:-)

I saw that you have filed your I-129 already. Why don't you try to file your I-212 at the district office where your husband's deportation was held. That's what I did. Just write on your cover letter that your I-212 is pursuant to your I-129. Just a thought

Good idea but,....then why is the consulate in London saying that he will need to bring 121 waiver to file with him when he does get an interview? And also any idea if the I 129 f have to be approved before you apply for a waiver or are we supposed to apply for it simultainisuly?

As I've told you, you can either file it through the consul at his embassy or file it to the district office where his deportation was held. Maybe the consul wants your husband to file it through him so he can do some recommendations or something, not sure. You can download the form from here:

http://www.uscis.gov/graphics/formsfee/forms/i-212.htm

I am just not sure how long more it will take to process the I-212 if you submit it to your consul general on the date of your interview. Considering you still have to wait for your I-129 approval, you can expect a long wait.

I might resubmit my I-212 aplication though, because I just found out that the CSC doesn't have my file with them after almost 6 months. We are contacting my fiance's congressman for help, and we have written a complaint on what happened. We are hoping they can expedite the processing for us since it is their error and not ours. So good luck to us!