[size="3"][/size]My visa journey is getting worse by the minute. I wrote a little while ago that my husband had not been contacted to pick up his visa after being told he would be contacted in two weeks and given a purple card to collect his visa once it was ready. It has now been a month on Friday since they told us it would take two weeks. My husband is a foreign national working in Saudi who now has had his salary witheld because he has not returned his passport due to the embassy having his passport to issue him a visa. Both my husband and myself have been calling the embassy like crazy starting the second week of waiting and could not reach anyone. Finally my husband spoke to someone in the office this past Wednesday and he told them about the situation of the timetable he was given to pick up his visa and was given the general reply of be patient and then he told the person he spoke with on the phone that his salary was being witheld and his contract was ending soon with the company he works for and he would have to leave the country immediately. The person that he spoke with on the phone was surprised about this developement (even though my husband told the officer who interviewed him that he they could not keep his passport for a long period of time because he had to return it to the company, he was assured by the CO it would be two weeks and everything would be okay). The person he spoke with on the phone said she would put a note on the file explaining the situation and to contact them back in another 10 days. In the meantime I called the US State Department in Washington DC and was asked did my husband have his interview and my response was yes and she said are you sure? I said yes I am sure and that he was told his visa would be ready in two weeks and given a purple card, she then informed me that in the system they had him listed as a.....get this....NO SHOW!!!!! OH MY GOD I hit the roof, I was livid to say the least. She said that the officer hadn't even put the notes in the system and that they must be very busy in Riyadh. Well, I call it incompetence! She told me to send the US Embassy in Riyadh an email and told me exactly what I should say, and if by the 9th of June nothing is done to call and ask for her and then she can begin an investigation concerning our visa.

I don't know why I am amazed that people don't give a rat's behind ( and I am being nice) about the games people are playing with your life. It's one thing to receive a 221g and have to play the waiting game which I know has got to be a hell in itself, it's another thing to be told you will receive your visa and given the card to pick it up and play the waiting game again. I have surgery I have been putting on hold because I am waiting for my husband to arrive to help me since I will need care once I am out of surgery. I have no family here in the state I am in. I will have to go ahead and schedule the surgery and hope that someone in my family (I live in Ohio and my family live in California) can take leave from their job to help me once I come out of surgery, If not I will have to go into a nursing home to recuperate. I can't put the surgery off any longer and here I am still playing the waiting game.

I thought about contacting my congressman, but then my husband told me to hold off on that because it might make things worse for us since they have us over a barrel. I think we have a lot of incompetence at the Embassy. How freakin long does it take to stamp a visa in the passport after you have been approved for a visa? This nightmare is dragging on and on, so pray for me because I sometimes feel like I am going to lose my mind with all of this waiting around and having people lie to you constantly, tell you one thing and do another, and I believe purposely try to break up marriages because of all the stress they put on your marriage. This is what happens when you do the right thing and file your paperwork and pay your fees and follow the rules you get screwed, if you do the wrong thing and walk, crawl, dig, lie to get across the border somehow you are welcomed with open arms, to hell with the people who have been waiting years for a visa to join family members, too bad for those who file fiance visas with all your evidence of a bonified relationship that will lead to marriage and especially to bad for all those who marry and file your I130, too bad you followed the law, now isn't that freakin amazing??

Thanks for allowing me to vent and any suggestions or words of encouragement would be appreciated.
one livid woman in Ohio!

Pam,

I was sorry to read about your experience and the feelings of helplessness you are going through now.  You are not the only couple that has been told the visa would be ready in such and such time frame and have it come and go and no visa in hand.  It sounds like your husband is in Administrative Processing since he coming on a CR1.  All checks have to be done prior to the issuance of this visa since the AOS processing is done before he enters the USA.  A congressman or senator cannot expedite the checks and all I can suggest is that you take the journey one day at a time.  The embassy/consulate keeping the passport keeps him from traveling and his security checks from being void if he is moving around after they have cleared his status.

Take care and hopefully they can get the checks done soon and issue his visa.

Mary

sounds like a real mess! I am sorry for the trouble you are going through. We kind of encountered an unfortunate situation ourselves. My husband was approved for visa and was told he would receive it within a few weeks. Well two weeks no visa, after calls and emails to embassy, they assured us that it was mailed out. Still no visa. My husband just went to the embassy to speak to somebody and he did talk to a worker there and after 2 hours of waiting in the embassy, they found his passport sitting under a pile of paperwork! Hopefully, your husband can make a trip to the embassy and speak to someone face to face. I hope that you both are reunited very soon!

Hi Mary,
Thanks for the support and I would agree with you about Administrative processing except for the fact that they have my husband listed in the system as a no show for the interview when in fact he was given an interview, and the fact that he was not issued a 221g and given a purple card which is what is given when you are coming back to the embassy to collect your visa. Also, the person he spoke with over the phone said if he was in administrative processing he would have gotten a 221g and the purple card means that his passport was taken for visa issuance. I guess time will tell and if in fact he is in Administrative processing then they should let him know that as well.

Pam

You are right this is a HUGE MESS!! My husband is planning on making a trip down to the Embassy to talk with someone about this. It's a shame that this process is not transparent and everything seems to be such a big freakin mystery. I don't know how in the world a government entity like this one can survive. If the whole of USCIS, NVC, and the Embassies were ran by the private sector and not the government, their would have been a shake up in management and restructuring of the companies. So much for government efficiency!

Thanks for your kind words Mary
Pam

IM so sorry for your inconvenience

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