Does anyone have insight into the regulations surrounding 221g, specifically:
1. once administrative processing is "complete," how long until it expires?
2. what rules a consulate must follow regarding timely notification to visa applicants regarding their case?
3. what rules must a consulate follow regarding providing accurate answers to questions from applicants?

My fiance and I interviewed together in December 2008 at the embassy in Kathmandu. We were told all of our documents were in order, but that we needed a very short administrative processing, only one or two weeks. In June 2009 we were still waiting, so I contacted my Senator's office, and they inquired about our case. The State Department told my Senator's office on June 17 that it was still processing in Kathmandu, and that they had no other information. When I emailed the embassy to request a petition extension on June 23, they told me that our case was "almost complete," and that he could drop his passport off at the embassy.

Well, my man had taken a job guiding in Japan for the summer, because he couldn't sit around unemployed in Nepal waiting indefinitely. He wanted to honor his job contract instead of leaving in the middle. I explained this to the embassy and asked if there would be a problem if he waited until November to drop off his passport. In fact, I asked very specifically two different times about any time limit or complications that would affect our situation if we waited until November. I was told twice that we could wait and the consulate said nothing about a time limit.

So here we are some months later. I just emailed the consulate to clarify a point on whether my fiance needs a police certificate from Japan when he comes to pick up his visa in November. They responded that since our administrative processing was completed on MAY 29th and it has been more than four months, they must do the administrative processing all over again - what?!?!?! Another six month wait?

So at what point is a consulate actually breaking the law?
First, they have never once communicated with my fiance since our interview. They have never sent him any kind of email notice or phone call that his administrative processing is complete. They just told me in an email that he could drop off his passport.

Second, they are running us around on the actual date that the processing was complete, which may turn out to be critical since Indra is now hightailing it back to Kathmandu to try and sort everything out before this "four month" period is over. They say it was done in may, but they had told my senator's office and me in late june that it still wasn't complete.

Third, when asked twice about deadlines and time limits, they did not provide us with a truthful answer. Had they told us about the time limit, we would have dealt with everything earlier!

I am just so frustrated! It is hard not to feel targeted by the consulate. I am waiting to hear their response to all of these contradictions, and I plan on returning to my Senator's office on Monday to see what they can do. Does anybody out there have some knowledge that could help us? Thank you so much!

Wow

It appears COs and AP don't need to follow any rules - the "national security" card can be played. However, if you have in writing [like emails that state it shouldn't be a problem to delay sending in his passport] I'd get on the phone with your senator's office ASAP, send them copies of the email [either forwards or faxed copies] and ask them to look into this NOW. If there is a timing issue, expiration dates on name searches, or whatever - you want to make your case now and not be placed on some liaison's to do list in the next 10 days.

Good luck and please keep us updated with your case!

Thanks for the support. I am going into the Senator' office tomorrow. Fingers crossed. . .

I searched the net for "221(g) regulations" and found this site http://www.vfs-usa-my.com/applnforms/refusal.aspx
It's mentioning 90 days:
"when we notify you that the processing was finished and a clearance was granted, you will have 90 days from the date of clearance to drop off your passport and any other requested items at the VFS Application Center. Should you fail to meet the 90-day deadline and you still want to travel to the United States, you may need to be re-interviewed."

Thats page is good reading.......thank you for the info!

I ran into the same problem when my fiance was on AP for more than a year. What happens is they may do multiple checks, FBI, Interpol, CIA, financial records, and who knows what else. Each individual check has an expiration date. So check A may be good for one year while check B is only good for three months. It is possible for one security check to expire while they are running a check in another system then they have to do check A again.

The Good News is they will not have to recheck any hits they have already cleared him on only any new ones which may have appeared. This will make the AP process much, much shorter this time.

I clearly understand your frustration the embassies are very bad about not notifying the petitioner or beneficiary about anything. We called multiple times, sent emails, wrote letters, finally had to involve our congressman to find out we had been assigned a new case number and had another interview scheduled in two weeks. When I called the embassy and inquired about why didn't they notify us her response was "If you had contacted us we would have" So I know how angry you are because we had contacted them numerous times (both of us) and were never told this.

As to what can be done about it. Write letters of complaint and hope someone somewhere actually does something.


Good luck and remember this time it will be much shorter.

Hope it's not a Mt. Everest Sized problem. Good luck!