Security checks for MENA men in foreign consulates

[treehugger 23]

Read more carefully what I wrote above and check the timelines of the Madrid consulate. You'll see that several undocumented MENA men in Spain were issued a visa within a week. Mine is documented and is in all the databases for Spain already.

I'm a British female applying through London - I have been in AP for six months and one day, and I'm still waiting. Try telling me that's normal My interview was three minutes long and I was told to expect my visa in a few days, but possibly a few weeks because there was a backlog. It was only when nothing arrived and I called the embassy to ask about my passport that I found out I was in AP, and a call to DoS confirmed that my 'documents were complete, it was a good interview, and the relationship is recognised as valid', so why am I in AP, and why has it taken so long?!? Who knows.

I hope your SO's stay in AP won't be a long one

[Crossed_fingers 128]

I'm a British female applying through London - I have been in AP for six months and one day, and I'm still waiting. Try telling me that's normal My interview was three minutes long and I was told to expect my visa in a few days, but possibly a few weeks because there was a backlog. It was only when nothing arrived and I called the embassy to ask about my passport that I found out I was in AP, and a call to DoS confirmed that my 'documents were complete, it was a good interview, and the relationship is recognised as valid', so why am I in AP, and why has it taken so long?!? Who knows.

I hope your SO's stay in AP won't be a long one

Wow, that's crazy!! I am so sorry. I know that people in MENA go through that all the time, but at least there is some expectation of it. Not that knowing it is coming necessarily makes it any better, but wow, that's terrible - and I wonder what the justification is... Hang in there!

[Boiler 43,622]

I'm a British female applying through London - I have been in AP for six months and one day, and I'm still waiting. Try telling me that's normal My interview was three minutes long and I was told to expect my visa in a few days, but possibly a few weeks because there was a backlog. It was only when nothing arrived and I called the embassy to ask about my passport that I found out I was in AP, and a call to DoS confirmed that my 'documents were complete, it was a good interview, and the relationship is recognised as valid', so why am I in AP, and why has it taken so long?!? Who knows.

I hope your SO's stay in AP won't be a long one

That is a first for me. The only other cases I have seen were people with a MENA background and male.

[mspain 1]

What some people are seeing as attitude and defensivenes, I'm seeing as sadness. It's such an emotional rollercoaster that we have no control over. You're trying to make sense of a process that has no apparent rhyme or reason. All I can say to you is to hang in there. That's it. You'll do it because you have no choice....one week, two weeks, three months. We'll all be here right beside you.

I guess the other thing that makes it so hard is that he was never told he was on AP, never received a piece of paper or anything. I still don't see how we got from the interview with no AP to being put on AP 5 days after interview.

Also, I appreciate the words of comfort and I apologize if my tone was off. I'm really still very much in denial about the whole thing and don't really know what to believe.

[mspain 1]

I disagree. I see sense of entitlement and pissiness due to things not going as planned.

Too bad that's what you see. Maybe you should stop reading my posts if it bothers you so much. It sounds like it might be good for you. Have a nice day.

[Mithra 1,185]

You give yourself way too much credit. You too, have a nice day, sweetheart. I'm having a wonderful day.

Too bad that's what you see. Maybe you should stop reading my posts if it bothers you so much. It sounds like it might be good for you. Have a nice day.

[Ban Hammer 12,863]

if users need instruction on the "ignore" feature on vj, feel free to pm me.

[~PalmTreeGurl~ 154]

For Adam his AP was about 4 months, from May to Sept then was asked for the movement certificate which was the hold up and he never got. I remember someone elses Eygptian hubby had an interview the same time as Adam and he got his visa within a couple of weeks. Theres never any idea on the MENA guys. None are ever the same. Thats part of whats frustrating bcz you have nothing to go by. I sure do remember all that like it was yesterday! Every day waiting felt like it was a weeks worth of waiting.

[Dr. A ♥ O 203]

We waited a long time before we were even able to get to the interview point. For us we were told in the interview that we were approved and would have no AP and should receive the visa in 2-3 weeks. That's verbatim. I called DOS when that time was up and we had no visa in hand yet. That's when I learned we were in the dreaded black-hole of AP/AR. There is no way that anyone can know anything for certain as each case is unique. We waited 5 months and 1 week in AP until we got the final visa in hand and that was after I got our Congressman to advocate for us on our behalf. The entire immigration process is hellishness so I can sympathize. It doesn't help that we are mostly left in the dark with the ambiguous information they are allowed to give us.

I learned from talking with DOS, Embassy Officials, my Congressman's Immigration Office and VJ that in AP/AR name checks post interview are standard procedure. There is more than one agency that does these name checks and background checks. I also learned that part of the AP/AR process is where if there is any type of hit on a name they have to get the physical records and review it. Even if the person's name was mentioned as a witnessed to an accident. They have to verify the records and they have no control over when those records would be released to them. Other agencies can sometimes take their sweet time about sending over the physical records for them to look at. Name checks can expire before records are reviewed and then name checks have to start all over again and this eats up time. People with very common names like those that come from MENA countries, with all their various spellings of their names, can sometimes get tied up for a long time in this part of the process. Another part of AP/AR is squeezing the couple to see if they would break.

For MENA SO's it is highly common to have AP/AR regardless of the Embassy they go through. If people thought that the wait was shorter at Spain's Embassy then don't you think that those that come from high fraud consulates, such as those in MENA countries, would use it more often seeing it as a loophole to get through this process faster? I think the US Embassy's would catch on to the weak point and want to prevent something like that happening.

[JeanneVictoria 55]

Our AP was 6 months. Yes Meghan, I do remember what it felt like.

[mandyu1 5]

I just spent 3 weeks in AP @ NVC, which is not very common for K1 filers since the cases are not processed @ NVC like the CR-1 visa's. I remember the first week was the worst, I would call them every day, sometimes twice a day, and then I stopped because I got tired of hearing the same thing over and over. 3 weeks is not a long time compared to how long some people have been in AP, and I know there is the chance he will be put in AP again after the interview. Prior to our case going to NVC I was aware of AP and did a lot of research on it, and its what everyone says...a black hole. As others have said it could be because of his name, and also his profession. If he will be working in a profession here in the US that will allow him to have access to certain information or material that could be used to harm other American's then that can cause a delay also.

The best advice I was givin, and what I am already preparing myself for is.."expect the worse, but hope for the best." The advice sucks, and its not fair, but its the best advice.

Hope everything get resolved quickly for you

[sara535 15]

The best advice I was givin, and what I am already preparing myself for is.."expect the worse, but hope for the best." The advice sucks, and its not fair, but its the best advice.

Hope everything get resolved quickly for you

Actually Mandy thats an excellent point. Way back when my husband was still in morocco and we were waiting hardly anyone else on this board was even from MENA - I really didnt have much to compare to as far as timelines, but I did know about AP and I was able to expect it and also warn him it would come so it wouldnt be some ugly surprise. I told myself at every step of the way in this process that it was going to take a long time, so it anything happened in less time it was like a pleasant surprise. My advice it the old watched pot thing - try to limit your calls to DOS to like once a week and really, just find something else to do, clean out all your closets or learn to make some of his favorite dishes, anything to be busy and not just focused on the dragging days.

[treehugger 23]

Thanks, crossed_fingers, I hope your visa journey is as quick and as smooth as possible

Boiler, I've been posting about being in AP for the past 5.5 months, I can assure you I didn't just pop out of nowhere There's also a female Canadian poster who's been in AP for three months, and there's another UK male who just got his visa after two months in AP.

Meghan - the shock of finding out you're in AP when you've no reason to expect it, and when you're not informed of it at the interview and only find out two weeks later - is the hardest thing to get it over, but once it subsides it does get a little easier. Unfortunately there's no rhyme or reason (that's apparent to us anyway!) why any of us are in AP. There's a USC whose MENA husband applied through Ukraine, where he's been living legally etc, and they've been waiting for just over two years since their interview, so your case is not as unusual as you may think...I sincerely hope that you are not in AP for very long

Edited August 24, 2010 by treehugger

[Boiler 43,622]

I do not keep that close a watch on it.

Sorry it has happened to you, but it does seem very rare.

It has come up a few times on British Expats, but the timelines have been relatively short, even for those with a MENA background.