Today I had interview in Dhaka American Embassy for student visa. Everything was ok in the interview and even no additional paper was asked by the consular. After interview he gave me a paper saying:

" Your non-immigrant visa interview was successful and your visa has been conditionally approved. However, additional administrative processing is necessary."

He said they will contact me later and returned my passport!! What does that indicate??

Can anyone help, how much this additional administrative processing requires??

Papan

this might help you in knowing more about administrative processing:
i am putting here MARY's research on administrative processing :



Administrative Review and/or Administrative Processing
After Your Visa Interview

Administrative Review: Is when your case is being looked at more closely for accuracy and to make sure all security name and fingerprint checks have cleared and your visa can be adjudicated.

Administrative Processing: Means once you have interviewed it is in security checks for any of these situations: you have had a name hit in one of the many data bases, background checks for fraud, or has missing and incomplete information that must be submitted and the rechecked. Processing is more in depth and than the review process and there is no time limit for this processing to complete. Administrative processing can last a few days or months and in some cases it has endured for years.

What is 221(g)?

The 221(g) is a section of the US Immigration and Nationality Act, which is used when the embassy or consulate are unable to take immediate action on a visa case. In rare cases, when additional processing is required, the suspense category used in that case is 221(g) while the additional processing takes place. For example, sometimes the applicant has failed to bring in the correct documentation, has incomplete information or in some cases the embassy wants a co sponsor before they will issue the visa or health reasons are all reasons a 221(g) is issued. In the Middle East/African/ Asian countries these applicants are scrutinized and screened more intensely and thus they have to wait out longer security or fraud investigations until all verifications for security or suspected fraud come back cleared.

Source: US Immigration and Nationality Act located on the web at: http://149.101.23.2/graphics/lawsregs/INA.htm

The 221(g) forms vary from consulate/embassy and you can get one or more forms after your interview. They vary in color as well as the way they are written whereas some are brief and some are detailed. In most cases they say to contact the consulate/embassy after 45 days. Be aware that the 45 days means business days (no weekends or holidays) and in some parts of the world the processing times are longer than 45 days. Always, try and check for others that are going through the same consulate and see what the average processing time is for the majority of the applicants.

Name hits can last anywhere from a few days, months or even years. But it is mainly men that get stuck that are from certain countries and have common names like Mohammad, Ali, etc. When they run your name they run it every and any way it can be spelled. This is why some names are stuck until the FBI or other agency is able to clear them. Also, a full set of fingerprints can be asked for to rule out any name hits.

is everyone or most people getting this AP or this iz just in my case??!!

there are many who have gone through it

time can not be just told as to how much time it will take

a.p or a.r done extensively for every individual at every stage for all people mostly south asian countries and muslim countries however at embassy stage if the officer feels it may again be done at local embassy stage if the interviewing officer feels so

u can see many members having gone thru this by searching in this forum

u can read there experiences n personal message n ask them also .

thanks a lot....

Thanks for all the great info, doc_cute.

Papan, Hopefully the AP will be over soon, within a few days, and you will get your visa . We wish you good luck!

Recently I heard of same thing happening to a Pakistani man applying for K1 visa in London, where he has lived since 2 years. Within only 4 days they sent him a letter asking him to send his passport because the AP process was over, and he got the visa stamp. Good luck with having such a short AP too!

I hope this happens to wife as well

prayers for u khurram
dont worry keep faith n support u r wife as much as u can even emotionally n give her encouragement
at this stage she is far from u and she needs u
and also females a.p does ends very soon at max 1 month as far as i asked my lawyer
so dont worry

Thanks Mala

Today is exactly 10 days since she had her interview includin two non-business days

You have nothing to worry about. They must have taken your fingerprint and they are being checked at USA. As soon as the Embassy gets clearance, the Embassy will call you. It is hard to say how long it may take, but you have nothing to worry about. Now a days, they check (especially for male visa applicants) fingerprints before visas can be issued. So you are not the only one. Good luck and update us. Where are you coming to US?

We were on AP for 5 weeks from my fiance's interview date and the embassy called three days ago for him to send his passport. Hang in there and if everything checks out OK, they should eventually call you and hopefully sooner rather than later.


Good Luck

We are on AP for 6 month and no fingerprints were taken and they did not
keep the passport.

Congrats JODO, happy for both of you!

Thank you