Recently, I had read in many posts that Male spouses from India or Pakistan are going through extensive administrative review by FBI + consulates. This is really ridiculous.....

First we have to wait for so long for the immigrationi process to finish, then go through a nerve recking visa interview and then the Adminsitrative review (which could take anywhere from 5-6 months)....

Oh God, this is crazy........

what do you guys think of this? IS THERE ANY WAY TO AVOID THIS?


Any thoughts!!!!

Well from receiving advice from multiple and helpful vj people, it's a very good idea to get in touch with your SO's congressperson. You have to take it multiple before they actually drill some sense into their heads, that is the Visa Officers head .

I haven't seen any evidence that states contacting the petitioner's congressperson will eliminate Administrative Processing or Review.

Wait a minute before you freak out!

We went through the K1 at Delhi, and Sujeet had no problems at the interview. Not every male gets on AP in India. Pakistan may be more common because it is predominantly a Muslim country(which is scrutinized more since 9/11), while India is not. I have not read every case on here of course, but of the cases I remember that went on AP in India, it was usually because of either a large age gap, with the woman being older, or poor documentation to prove financial sponsorship.

Are you a mixed couple, or both of Indian ethnicity? If you are both the same ethnicity, you will have a much lower chance of going on AP, in my opinion. Me and my husband are not, I am a whitey and still we didn't have problems. Also if you have a large age gap, it could cause delays(not definitely but that is another factor to consider). Sujeet is 4 years older than me, so we didn't have an age issue either.

You have to make sure he has all the documents he will need, and especially important is proof of your relationship and proof of financial support(affidavits). Just be as prepared as possible with the documents, overly prepared.

All you can do besides that is pray!

AR and AP from India and Pakistan are something that you cannot control or expedite. A congressman or senator cannot intervene on your behalf --- all they can do is inquire to the status of your case. Since 9/11 men coming from certain countries are scrunitized more closely. RIMASH in our case my husband was in AP for 5 months and it was a total black abyss. The embassy does not have to disclose anything to the USC or petitioner until they are ready to make a decision on the case. Good luck on your journey and to all those still waiting as well. Mary

PS not all men from India get stuck in long checks like in Pakistan.

My case was put on AP/AR for 1(One) year by the Mumbai Consulate. What started with a K3 interview eventually ended by the issuance of the IR1 visa. There is NO big age gap between me and my wife (its actually 3 months), both of us have no children, I was never married before. As for evidence, proof, had more than 15 pounds of it (yes I weighed it to find out if I need assistance to carry it to the gates of the Consulate).

We are a cross ethnic couple and Mumbai consulate is notorious for picking on cross ethnic cases (data researched on VJ and other sites since the year 2000). Some may think it an exaggeration but I could literally see the scorn in the eyes of the CO who interviewed me for the first time. Then he put me on to a Fraud Investigation Division investigator, an Indian, who ricked of the peculiar colonial age pyscopacy for his masters. Anyway, he soon realized that I was too smart to fall for his canned and cliched trick questions and ended the interview.

Well, if anyone is interested they can look up my detailed posts on VJ. And also for other posts on this and other sites. I actually got a much better treatment that what many others before me were dished out. Many were virtually tormented and tortured with demeaning questioning and barked at and called cheats and low-lives. Maybe the tactics got more tacit when my time came because the Chief Consular Officer was transferred out of the Consulate (don’t know if the way they treated some interviewees had to do anything with it).

Also I found that this is peculiar to the Mumbai Consulate and that New Delhi is much humane and reasonable in its treatment of cross ethnic couples. But then its easy to catch the virus ....

Anyway, my case was resolved literally over night when my wife contacted the State Department and wrote a letter to Ms. Rice detailing everything.

Well, I still am a bit nervous sometimes thinking that we might have stepped on some toes back in the Consular Division in Mumbai when we got our case resolved from the State Department and one never knows to what extend these people might go to settle scores. Its not helping as I write this now, since the radio in the background is blurting out about how the FBI misused the US Patriot Act against some people they didn’t like.

In the passing if the couple is only of Indian origin the consulate will fall over itself to issue them a visa ASAP.

Charuhans

I agree that visa cases with cross-ethnic couples and age difference (when the female is older) are discriminated against in India. I wonder if how many times the couple has met, how long they knew each other or lived together is factored in, at all? There hasn’t been much discussion about that here. I'm 16 years older than my fiancé and we are a cross-ethnic couple but have known each other for several years (we have snail mail letters from 2001 onwards), when I was living in India. Interview is April 13 in Chennai so let’s see what happens…

best wishes eileen for your interview

Hope the interview goes really well!

Well, me and Sujeet had only been together on one 2 week trip(ever) before he had the visa interview. They didn't even care about that. That doesn't mean they definitely don't take that into consideration, but they didn't for us. We had proof of communicating for almost 3 years by the time his visa interview happened, even though we had only been face to face for about 2 weeks. Each consulate is different though. We were through New Delhi.

I have heard a lot of bad visa stories from out of Mumbai, like the story Charuhans wrote. They seem to give some people more problems at that consulate than at Chennai and Delhi. I don't know why.

Second that

We are a mixed couple, my wife is from Bangalore we didn't go into AP, actually everything went on like a breeze. I worked and been in India several times, have a 10 year indian visa. So that might have been a contributing factor but it was never mentioned or brought up.

hi rimash..r u guys a mixed couple???if not..then i guess..no worries..also many mixed couples hav got visa easily..even k1..so i guess...ur married....no reason to worry..i feel...if the wedding is acc to indian norms...
al the best..
take care...

Hi pinky_doc , we are Not a mixed couple..we are both punjabi and belong to Sikh religion.

The only thing is I am 6 Months older than him....but that shouldn't make a difference,,,its only 6 months...

I am actually worried about Name checks that people are getting stuck in these days...........I know 2 families their spouses had their Visa interviews last year and are still stuck in Name checks...its been 1 year...

I just hope and Pray to god...that it shouldn't happen to my hubby!!

Here's a plausible answer you WON't like.

'Coz you're dealing with USCIS and Dept. of State!

huh? i didnt get that...could you elaborate? please

Just a belated rant, from my own GC process (1996-1999).