I think DHS, NVC and the Consulates work off a scoring system. If the score is high enough, your paperwork moves on to the next phase without RFE’s and with your score from that phase. This arbitrary score number then gets calculated by averaging the scores from each phase. By the time it reaches the respective consulate your score is in a final phase, therefore the results are calculated to determine if you get the Visa right away or not, or even at all.

So I think by the time the consulate gets your paperwork and looks it over, they apply their own score to the other scores, averaging the scores out. Then your interview gets a score. Kind of like a final exam per se. For example: When you were in school your final exam can be 25% of your grade, but even if you aced the final test, your regular scores during the semester are too low to get your grade above C average and pass the class, therefore you fail. (Not get the Visa). Your score can initially be too low by the time it gets to the consulate and reviewed your paperwork before you have received any paperwork, so they pre-generate a blue/green slip.

From reading all these posts as far back as I could, I surmised this occurs.

Secret Lurker

We have found the winner!

FYI, we tried to figure this out for as long as I've been joining this forum, nobody can come up with a logical sound theory how DHS and USCIS' decision on visa approval. Nontheless, people will keep trying...

Yee........................essssssssssss!

Being a long time bureaucrat for many huge companies like IBM, Samsung, Seiko, and Xerox, I think this is the most logical thing for this process. The matter of fact, if I was employed by DHS/INS and my job was to be a member of a task team to propose a method to evaluate applicants, I would not be surprised at all that my team would probably come up with something similar to your description.

It seems to be the best way to judge these applicants with objectivity and a lower error rate. And those who are genuine would keep trying and that would minimize the error rate further. Of course, there will never be a method that is perfect for all.

Thanks for the input of your keen insight.

Tony

Visa approval rating method is as good as "OSCAR winning movies". You never know what you're gonna get, and if you think you figure it out, the next year the Oscar people will pick a movie that nobody heard of, with absolutely no publicity to win the Oscar award.

One thing Tony said that I absolutely agree: keep trying and that would minimize the error rate further. Those guys at HCMC got this system locked down. I still hear vietnamese folks around here talking about who marries who for $50K blah blah blah whenever I get to talk to them. The system is only seemed tough on the REAL case and true relationship, for the frauds they have the $50k USD reward motives them.

Keep the theory coming!!!

With such as system, by no means it would stop all the fake ones, only most of them. Given time, they will adjust to the system and figure it out. The DHS/INS' motivation is to prevent as many as of the fake one from coming through, the error rate I mentioned has to do with stopping or slowing down the genuine ones unfortunately.

I agree with Chuch totally. The motivation is quite big. What is so unfortunate is that some of them are still getting through and those genuine ones have been having to deal with the troubles and much longer waiting time.

Tony

It's obviously not that simple. There may be some scoring algorithms present somewhere during the process, but it's not just a total number of points that gets you the visa.

I'd say it's more like a decathalon, where you have to get a passing score in each and every event in order to go on to the next round.

There are a number of grounds for inadmissibility detailed in INA 212. If an alien is inadmissible due to any one of those criteria, it doesn't matter what his/her score is in the other areas. For example, if the medical uncovers evidence of prior illegal drug use, no amount of proof of a bona fide relationship helps. If the affidavit of support shows insufficient income to overcome the public charge grounds, then a squeaky clean police record does no good. If a K-1 couple didn't show proof of having met in person during the two years prior to filing the petition, then no amount of money shown on the affidavit of support will help things.

There's obviously a scoring algorithm for the affidavit of support, and they're pretty clear what it is (continous income plus 1/5 of liquid assets must be greater than or equal to the target). There may be some sort of secret scoring algorithm for other events in the decathalon, too, I dunno. But it's clearly not as simple as "let's wait until they score 15,000 points, and then we'll give them a visa".