Hello folks please post your comments and experiences faced or facing in Riyadh Embassy Saudi Arabia...anything which can be helpful to others specially people living in the same place.


Anybody from Riyadh embassy got rejected or denied of Immigrant visa...please post your experience that why they denied your visa.

Thanks and best regards
Austinn

Hello,

I'm from Riyadh, its been more than 7 months since we are waiting for administrative processing to be done... we had the final visa interview on 30 May, 2007 since then we are just waiting and waiting...

dont know how long will it take


Regards

Dont worry Tariq inshalla it will be soon over just be patient, keep in touch with US Embassy in RIYADH by E-MAIL, coz visiting US Embassy will be a time consuming step...

Hi,

I am a US citizen, and my Saudi husband is trying to get his conditional residence. He had his final visa interview appt. on Feb. 12 at the Riyadh consulate. During that time they did not tell him if he was approved or not, and just took his passport for "administrative review" of our case. They told him that once they are done, he can pick it up or have it Fedexed to him (he lives in Jeddah).

They have not finished with the visa yet. We emailed them 2 weeks after his interview (bec. we don't know why they should take his passport for an unknown amt. of time w/o letting him know why). They emailed back and said to give it 2-3 more weeks and try to email them again if we don't hear anything. This is discouraging that it might take as long as 7 months. Does anyone else have any other similar experience or advice?

thank you,
KEKhan

Dear I got the call in February and am refused by the us consulate, for me its very much upsetting situation right now, it will take 3-6 months officially to get another call, so relax and stay cool, wish you luck in your process, they kept my passport and again when I got a call I thought they will give me a visa but they interviewed me hard again for almost 30 minutes ...but hope your case will be fine.

What I find really difficult about our situation is that Saudi Arabia doesn't allow visitor visas. Apparently for some reason I can't even get a family visa bec. of the fact that my husband never got the Saudi marriage permit before our wedding (he couldn't even do that for some reason, I think he said bec. he was not yet 30 years old?) Anyways the whole system over there is really confusing to me, and it seems like one of the hardest situations, as I can't even visit him while we are waiting.

Now the problem is that they took his passport, so he can't even come to see me, or travel elsewhere. We don't want to mess up the possiblity that they could issue the visa soon, by asking for his passport back right now. We are really stuck, except for if I visit him in some Gulf countries where apparently he doesn't need a visa to travel.

Sorry to keep complaining, but I was just wondering others' thoughts on this situation and if anyone has a similar problem. It seems like visiting is so difficult, and it's such a long wait for the whole visa process to not be able to visit once in a while. Well I hope everyone will hear some good news soon about their visa. Thanks,
KEKhan

It is really impossible to believe that your husband is not getting the family visa, If your husband is doing a good job or atleast earning 7,000 Sar then there is no question that he is not getting the permit or family visa, in Saudi Arabia age is not at all a show stopper to get the marriage visa.
Dear what ever you told me about the Saudi Law is not acceptable
Good luck to you in ur process.
Take care
Allah Hafiz

Hi AustinnPawers,

I hope you don't mind a question- I was wondering if you had applied for the marriage permit, and was it before or after you applied for your immigration visa?
Some websites seem to say that getting the marriage permit can be very difficult. I was wondering how your experience was. We certainly don't want to make things any more complicated (as we have already been married for almost a year, and hopefully getting our visa soon). But it would be nice to know if we could actually get the permit and family visa.
Thanks again for your input. I hope things will look up for your visa soon,

KEKhan

I dont mind any question, you are always welcome.

No, I never applied for the marriage permit before my case refusal, now after getting the refusal I applied for the marriage permit or VISA for wife and in just 24 hours of I got the visa approval and I have sent that document to my wife in States and soon she is travelling for Saudi Arabia.

Dear If you are earning good and working in a good organization in Saudi Arabia then honestly it is not at all a big issue.

May Allah help you to get your case done successfully.

Allah Hafiz

Great! I really thought I am the only one with wife visa in Saudi Arabia, Riyadh Embassy

Well my wife had her interview in the first week of Feb. and they told us it can takes up to four weeks before they send the passport with the visa thorugh Fedex, but a month is over, and I tried emailing them but they told me to stop asking and that they will commnuicate to my wife once they have any updates,

So I don't know what to do now, and why is it only in US Riyadh Embassy where after the interview you still have to wait for long time before they give you the result, I thought they will in the same day as the interview or at most the next day.

Does any one know or have any idea what's going on? my wife isn't saudi, and I am a US Citizen with Approved K3 Visa.

Please share your info here

My husband also had his visa interview at Riyadh; it seemed to go pretty well. He is a Saudi; I am a USC with an approved I-130. His interview was on Feb 12. About 2 weeks after it, we emailed the consulate and they told us that our case is under "administrative review" - (which if you don't know what that is, you can learn a lot by searching other threads on this website). They also told us to email back again 2-3 wks later if we heard nothing. We have emailed them this week to see if there is any progress, but heard nothing yet.

If they do not give us any information (or if they continue to hold my husband's passport with no visa in sight, and w/o communicating with us), we are considering taking our lawyer's advice and contacting a Congressperson for help. I have also read that people on this website have called the Dept. of State to see what is happening with their visas - I might consider doing that also depending on how long we have to wait.

Well good luck to you and your wife - I hope the Riyadh consulate gets their act together soon.
KEKhan

Yes that's what I am thinking to do as well, if I hear nothing for a week or two I will contact my congressman specially that it's election year so I will expect them to be very responsive.

I can't belive this after all we went thourgh there is still a delay to go through, for what? I have been away from my wife for over two years, enough is enough


But do you know if anyone got a visa from Riyadh embassy recently?
And how long are we looking at for the average wait time?
Also how can someone know if they are in AP review?


Please help I am going cruzy............

Yeah I know the feeling - my husband and I have lived apart for over 5 years now (he had a work contract at home, and I was going through college). Luckly we were able to take regular vacations, but now since the consulate has taken his passport and I have a full time job (and also it seems pretty complicated for me to get a visa to get into KSA), I am getting more impatient and upset about not being able to see each other. I am hoping to get a week off to see him in Dubai (apparently he can travel to Gulf countries with no passport, that is one blessing).

The way we knew that we were in administrative review is that the consulate replied to our emails 2 wks ago and said that is the reason for the delay (it is the most common reason as far as I know, esp. if there didn't seem to be any problem with the case during the interview). They also said to write back in 2-3 wks, so here we are trying to write to them all week, w/ no reply back yet. If they don't write back to us next week I will contact the Congressman here.

From this website, I gather that AR can take weeks, months, or in the most extreme cases, over a year. Our process has seemed to go smoothly so far, so I'm hoping it will be "months" in our case, seeing as it has already been a month now already. I don't know anyone who has gotten a visa from the Riyadh embassy on thie site; it doesn't seem like there are too many people from KSA, and most of us seem to be stuck somewhere in the process.

My husband has a friend in KSA who won the diversity visa lottery, and got his immigrant visa in Riyadh. He had a "false hit" on his name, and they had to do an extra interview for that. But then he got his visa after only ~3wks and was able to come to US. I guess even the diversity visa has priority over the CR-1. Go figure, who knows maybe they are particularly backed up in Riyadh right now. My husband just emailed them again about either getting some news or getting his passport - so we will wait and see....

KEKhan

Folks please be patient AR takes time and in normal cases it takes some where 3-6 months so relax, do not hammer them by sending mail every week, by sending mail every week can cuase delay so my recomandation is 1 mail in one month.
Dont worry once they will make ur passport ready with visa they will contact you by the given information.

so relax and Inshalla ALLAH WILL HELP US.....

PEACEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE

Hi,
I know what you are saying and I have thought of that also. I don't want to get on the consulate's bad side either.

Our problem is that we don't want them holding the passport if they know it is going to be months and months (and not telling us that either). My husband also did ask around about the family visa for me to come visit him, but has been told by multiple people that 1) it takes a long time, 2) you need money or connections to get it, and 3) we may get in trouble for getting married before getting the permit. He seems to think this is due to the fact that he is an actual Saudi (family lived there for generations), whereas for people who more recently immigrated there, they seem to care less if they marry outside than if actual Saudis do.

He was told by one person that it's better to wait until he is in the US and then try to apply for the family visa for me at the Saudi embassy here (they won't mess with us there supposedly). Anyways he is still asking around and trying to gather more information, but we are both afriad that he could get into trouble and are naturally cautious about that whole idea.

Which leaves us for the time being: - he can't come here to visit, and I can't go there to visit. We can only go to Gulf places like Bahrain or Dubai (where he doesn't need a passport to travel), and pay extravagant amounts for plane tickets and hotels, to be able to see each other. That is why we continue to bother the consulate, in order to either get some info. about the visa, or to just get the passport back for us to use as we continue to wait...

Talk about going crazy - I am already long gone, haha

Thanks for your input and support,
KEKhan

So how long has it been since your 2nd interview? and what was the interview all about?

Also what visa are you seeking to get? CR1, K1, K3

I see over 300 visits to this Riyadh Embassy thread, but only 4 people posting, I encourage others who may be going through Riyadh Embassy to post, share your story, it's free forum just don't be specific and help your self and others by posting and sharing.

Call the DOS..........they are super nice and will let you know what's happening.
202-663-1225
then dial 1 and then 0 at the voice prompts..............good luck..........
Read under Egypt portal about administrative processing in certain countries..........

Dude, I was refused in Feb 2008 you can estimate how much time has passed, my case is CR1, my wife has contaced the senetor and provided our case number and other information they asked so hope for the best, by the way we are proceeding our case through a lawyer now.

Goodluck to all of you..

Hi AustinnPawers,
I was wondering if they ever gave you a specific reason for your refusal, or if they asked for anything else for you to bring to the consulate? I wish you good luck and I hope you will get another interview soon.

By the way the consulate wrote back to us today. They said they have no idea how long the processing will take, and if we need to get my husband's passport to let them know. At least they wrote back. I think I'll take your advice and not bother them with too many emails, since it seems like they really don't have a clue. Maybe I'll call DOS soon and see if they have anything to say.

My husband and I are considering taking some time off our jobs and going to live together in Egypt, if they really take a long time. At least they say he can get his passport back to do that. Hopefully it won't come to that, but we are starting to accept more each day that this could take many months. Oh well, we'll see...
KEKhan

No they never give you the reason, we need to find the reason by our selves through UCS, I took everything all the emails, photos, telephone bills everything what I had to justify our relationship but they really dont give a F**** they take every case as a fraud case and screw ppl...anyways once we will get the reason we will proceed and will update you folks as well.

Thanks a lot Lyn for the info. I appreciate it.

Austin,

I wish you all the good luck on your fight, but your case was refused in Feb. 2008, I can't estimate how login has your case been in US Embassy in Riyadh, can you say how many months

Also you stated that you were interviewed again, what do you sense from that interview was the reason for the refusal?

Thanks a lot Austin for opening this thread, and for being so helpfull

Yes, thank you Austin!

I'm so glad there is a thread specifically for the Riyadh consulate. I hope more people from KSA will share their experiences here. We should all keep each other updated on how things are going. Good luck on your next appt. at the consulate,

KEKhan

6 weeks with no news from the embassy, and they don't even answer my emails, I don't know if I will get the visa or not, maybe my case is stack in this AR/PR that everyone is talking about, I couldn't confirm it from the DOS, as they don't have any idea.


Have any one got a visa from us embassy in Riyadh at all? speak out ppl, over 500 visit hits and only four people posting!

I don't know if anyone has gotten the final visa from Riyadh on this website. I do know that my husband emailed our contact at the consulate, and told them we would like to get his passport back for him to travel (since they don't give us a timeline on how long they are keeping it from him). They emailed back saying they have no idea how long it will take, and to let them know ahead of time if he needs passport to pick it up.
He emailed back saying he would email one week in advacne if he needed to pick up passport, then they seemed to change tune (for some mysterious reason), and the same exact person wrote back to say, "email me again next week and remind me to send your case so it can be expedited" (by another official).
We wrote back at the beginning of this week, and reminded him. He replied and said he had sent our case for expediting. Good news? I have no idea, but it is giving us a little hope. Maybe you should try the same thing and see what they say. In my opinion no one has the right to take your ID for unlimited, unknown amts. of time. I'm glad we brought it up.
KEKhan

But I am sorry to ask this question, are you sure it's to expedite the visa issuance not to expedite the passport sending, I hope/wish/pray that it's the first so you would be the first to get the visa out of Riyadh, because it seem like a black hole to me if no one has ever taken visa from them.

Thanks a lot for posting and sharing the info., and I wish you the best of luck in your journey

I really don't know what they meant by expediting. We are planning on waiting another week before our next email, then asking them what they mean by that and what is happening now.

I wouldn't be surprised if they misunderstood my husband's last email. He had said that he would email them a week in advance IF he needed the passport back. Then they wrote back about the expediting. So maybe you are right. I was wondering why they changed their mind so suddenly.

Does anyone know what this "expediting" term means?
KEKhan

This was how our emails looked:

Embassy Email: Your case is still pending and I have no idea how long will it take to be completed, if you need your passport you can come and collect. Please let me know if you need your passport. Regards,

My husband:
Thank you for your reply. I will email you one week in advanced if I needed to come and collect my passport. For the time being I will keep it with the embassy for the visa processing.

Embassy: Please remind me next week to remind the officer who is reviewing your case to expedite your case. Regards,

My husband: (reminded them)

Embassy: Thanks for reminding me. I informed the officer to expedite your case. Regards,

Well it looks kind of good to me, but I can't be sure. We'll find out soon I hope,
KEKhan

Well Kekhan, reading the above I think it's expediting the process, but is it the final process to give visa I don't know but what's sure from the above email back and forth is that the case is under process by someone and they can't send the passport until that person is done processing wither it's the last processing or not, I don't see the above corresponding revealing it




Inshaa Allah it's to give the visa, so we can all celebrate in here


Thanks for posting and sharing.

Oh wow - today he got it !!! I left work and found 5 calls from him on my cell phone, and he said he got the visa package from Fedex. I can't believe it! I guess expediting is a good thing after all...

The only thing is that the Do Not Open envelope was a little torn and ripped 1 inch on the side, from the Fedex handling. So he is going to email the consulate again, and maybe go back there and get another envelope in person.

But that is OK - we got it and we are thankful. Thank you to everyone here who was so supportive with information and advice and help. I hope you will all hear some good news soon. Time to celebrate - and it's amazing how he got it on the day before our 1-year anniversary!!

Mashaa Allah ....Congratulation KEKhan

What a good news , inshaa Allah this will start the string of visa issuance,

Thank you so much for sharing the info

Mobarak and have a wonderful live together

Thank you for all your kind wishes I hope this is a good sign for others waiting at the Riyadh embassy! I was just reading the thread VISA IN HAND, showing all the MENA people who have received their visas this year...

I can't wait until he gets here and we start our life together... Thank you all again, and hopefully March will be a lucky month for many!

KEKhan

Everybody is waiting and check this out


http://travel.state.gov/visa/temp/wait/tem...p;x=61&y=19



Waiting is something, and waiting without you knowing when the wait will end is something else

The website you posted only shows info. for Nonimmigrant visas (unless I missed something on that page). But the immigrant visa is another thing, and probably not something they would make any estimates or promises about. Maybe you should try what we did and ask to possibly get your passport back for travel??? (I don't know what happened really with ours, but it was after that request that they mentioned that they would expedite our case). Of course my husband thinks it could be that our officer was sympathetic since he has the same last name as us, lol

Your last sentence reminds me of a poem by emily dickinson called "if you were coming in the fall" - it actually meant a lot to me while I was waiting (I get daily poems in my email). I'm sorry you are still waiting - keep us updated on how it's going and good luck!

KEKhan

I know that the link doesn't give time frame for K visas, but then why not? why they don't want to put a deadline for them self for the immigrant visa?, I thought it should have the priority because it's coming from US citizen, verses the other non-immigrant visas aren't!

It's really painful.


By the way did your husband got a replacement for the envelope that was little bit open?

I know the feeling of having to wait and the uncertainty of when it will ever change or happen. They probably don't post timelines for immigration visas since each individual case is so different, and maybe they have no way of knowing how long the AR process will take, as it might change over time.

I am sorry you are still waiting! Have you tried to email the embassy again - did they ever write you back once? If they have never written back to any of your emails, perhaps you should contact your US Senator and have them intervene for you. Each senator has their own website, which has instructions on how to contact them and what information to give. I can also give you a form letter that our lawyer gave us with some information to provide to the senator, if you need.

I can understand the value of not constantly emailing and harrassing the embassy, but if you have never received a reply to any of your emails, that is another thing. That is not right, and you should ask someone for help.

For our visa, my husband is going to return to the US embassy in early April to get another un-ripped envelope in person. He lives in Jeddah, so he has to get a flight to Riyadh to do this small thing... But it's better to be safe than sorry for when he gets to the US border, esp. after waiting so long!

KEKhan

What a great news... My wife got the visa "Alhamdo Lel Allah"
I can't belive it...I am so happy ....I am jumping

I was sleeping when my wife called and told me this ...few menutes a go..


Thanks to everybody and I wish the rest of you a smooth process

A special thanks to KeKhan for sharing her info, for being there when needed

Thank you so much KeKhan

YAAY - CONGRATULATIONS !!!

ANOTHER VISA IN OUR LITTLE KSA THREAD

AND GOOD WISHES FOR EVERYONE ELSE STILL WAITING - KEEP US UPDATED AND GOOD LUCK!

Hello,

I was looking for a topic regarding interviews in KSA..for some reason i couldnt find it .I am glad that there is one now.
Today my children had their interview at the embassy in Ryiadh.My husband petitioned for them as a Conditional Green Card .CR2 ...They only interviewed my daughter which is 14 years old...no questions to my son which is 11 years .old..thogh he was present..The interview went smooth except one question which i have found it to be irrelevant to the case ..When the interview was over they didnt say if they were approved or in administrative review ..Nothing..They only say that they will contact them after 2 weeks..I thought i share my children;s experience with you ..
Good luck to everyone

Amalitta