back ground checks on beneficiaries

[ashleyphilly 70]

What if the beneficiary has lived in US? Like me who lived 8 years?

[Ning 619]

But before the AP they never ever do so, to my belief.

You will have to believe what you want based on what you know.

In two cases I helped with the beneficiary was investigated due to something that was stated in their submission to the embassy. One for example simply said she was employed in a restaurant where there was bar. She was employed to clean and nothing more. It took 90 additional days for the investigation by the embassy that revealed what she had indicated was true.

In another the person said she was a yoga instructor. She was investigated for months.

What if the beneficiary has lived in US? Like me who lived 8 years?

The US doesn't produce police reports on people. You could be subject to an FBI check I suppose if USCIS feels there is reason to do so.

[Jawaree 719]

They check everything and if beneficiary had claimed USC they'll find (example on a job)

otherwise if alls on the up & up nothing to worry about

[Girl from Celebes 588]

I am simply wondering - is that really possible? USCIS doesn't have any databases except the US ones. So, I believe, there is no actual background check for the beneficiary. Probably, just the documents info verification, to make sure all the data in the application is the same as in the IDs and certificates provided.

NSA is a living proof that the US government can get any sensitive information from other countries regarding the national security concerns.

[JoelyLeidy 3]

You will have to believe what you want based on what you know.

In two cases I helped with the beneficiary was investigated due to something that was stated in their submission to the embassy. One for example simply said she was employed in a restaurant where there was bar. She was employed to clean and nothing more. It took 90 additional days for the investigation by the embassy that revealed what she had indicated was true.

In another the person said she was a yoga instructor. She was investigated for months.

The US doesn't produce police reports on people. You could be subject to an FBI check I suppose if USCIS feels there is reason to do so.

interesting, now how would they know if its a restaurant or bar? Or really care?.. Seems like the job discription of pole dancing rather than cleaning, would be more of a concern? many restaurants and bars are combined and classed as either, and why months of research? and in some developing country, the US Government would spend resources to verify if a person is in fact a yoga instructor or parse out if a restaurant is actually a bar or visa versus? In a lot of developing countries, jobs are fluid, as are businesses. A lot of activities are legal in countries, or the host country turns a blind eye toward it, but illegal here. that seems more of an issue. My ex-wife, who was Colombian, worked for her plastic surgeon brother, free lance respiratory therapist, and sold avon products, just to make close to the country's minimum wage..when we went through the CR-1 process, nobody was contacted... What my curiosity was about, to what extent does the embassy go, when they don't have access to the host county's records to verify information in the beneficiary's country? My fiancee is in a small town on the pacific coast of Colombia, 11- 15 hour bus ride from Bogota.She has lived at various places every year for five years, and is a hair dresser shop assistant. It just seems like a lot of resources and work go over each item. i work for the US government in a sensitive classed job as a federal agent, and we get more concerned about material misstatements, like not disclosing an arrest, when in fact there was one, or if she was arrested for prostitution, when she claimed she was not? not if a restaurant is actually a bar or minutiae if a person is in fact a yoga instructor? I am going to go down to Colombia over Christmas and may have her get a letter from her employer, notarized, about her job, and her current landlord that she lives where she lives, notarized, and give to the embassy during her interview.. seems like the best way to avoid AP. We had a clerical error on job and education dates, (off by 6 months), for employment. if in fact they choose to travel to enquire about her job, this may simplify things.

Edited October 11, 2014 by JoelyLeidy

[Torete 121]

Possible? Yes. Probable? Unlikely.

http://www.interpol.int/Member-countries/World

The reach of various law-enforcement entities in today's world is astounding.

However, various government resources are already stretched thin so what would the cost benefit analysis show? There already exists a wide variety of databases law-enforcement can readily access huge amounts of information...domestic or international.

IMO only. I don't sense your worry, just your curiosity...that's healthy.

Regards.

Edited October 11, 2014 by Torete

[JoelyLeidy 3]

NSA is a living proof that the US government can get any sensitive information from other countries regarding the national security concerns.

A consulate would spend thousands of dollars,and man hours employing the NSA, to investigate a shop assistant, in a small town? Seems like a quick phone call to an employer verifying employment would be enough...and hold up a k-1 visa? I think I wouldn't call my senator or congressman about processing as much as i would complain about spending our fiscal budget on investigating a shop assistant in a remote city.. Seems like cross matching name with data bases to see affiliation to any known illegal activity or terror groups... (Colombia has the Narco-trafficking, Human Trafficking, and terror groups like FARC). Those things sound more relevant in a beneficiary background check of an address or employer (i.e. cleaning lady at a bar versus a restaurant?

[JoelyLeidy 3]

NSA is a living proof that the US government can get any sensitive information from other countries regarding the national security concerns.

[steve n songsang 45]

obviously, at the I-129-F U.S.C.I.S. application stage the beneficiary is not "checked"...having met and free to marry are the basic qualifications...now, at the consulate stage, of course, the embassy can, and very probably will check and verify the information submitted by the beneficiary without spending $1000`s of dollars and extensive man hours. While every embassy is different, as Ning stated in a previous post, in Thailand at least it is well known that these checks are done, before OR after they receive a "clean" police clearance.

[Girl from Celebes 588]

A consulate would spend thousands of dollars,and man hours employing the NSA, to investigate a shop assistant, in a small town? Seems like a quick phone call to an employer verifying employment would be enough...and hold up a k-1 visa? I think I wouldn't call my senator or congressman about processing as much as i would complain about spending our fiscal budget on investigating a shop assistant in a remote city.. Seems like cross matching name with data bases to see affiliation to any known illegal activity or terror groups... (Colombia has the Narco-trafficking, Human Trafficking, and terror groups like FARC). Those things sound more relevant in a beneficiary background check of an address or employer (i.e. cleaning lady at a bar versus a restaurant?

Based on my experience I never get noticed from any of my friends or my family members regarding someone called them and asked about me. But again, they would easily find me on Internet because I have been worked over 10 years on journalism field and I even attended many functions of the US Embassy in Jakarta regarding my job as a journalist when my husband filed I-129F for me. You can read my interview review regarding what they were thinking about how wonderful Internet it was.

I think you are worried for nothing. If the beneficiary lied on immigration docs and found out after she/he moved to the US then the government can kick them out from the country.

[a ghani 0]

Thank you

Edited October 11, 2014 by a ghani

[Ning 619]

interesting, now how would they know if its a restaurant or bar? Or really care?.. Seems like the job discription of pole dancing rather than cleaning, would be more of a concern? many restaurants and bars are combined and classed as either, and why months of research? and in some developing country, the US Government would spend resources to verify if a person is in fact a yoga instructor or parse out if a restaurant is actually a bar or visa versus? In a lot of developing countries, jobs are fluid, as are businesses. A lot of activities are legal in countries, or the host country turns a blind eye toward it, but illegal here. that seems more of an issue. My ex-wife, who was Colombian, worked for her plastic surgeon brother, free lance respiratory therapist, and sold avon products, just to make close to the country's minimum wage..when we went through the CR-1 process, nobody was contacted... What my curiosity was about, to what extent does the embassy go, when they don't have access to the host county's records to verify information in the beneficiary's country? My fiancee is in a small town on the pacific coast of Colombia, 11- 15 hour bus ride from Bogota.She has lived at various places every year for five years, and is a hair dresser shop assistant. It just seems like a lot of resources and work go over each item. i work for the US government in a sensitive classed job as a federal agent, and we get more concerned about material misstatements, like not disclosing an arrest, when in fact there was one, or if she was arrested for prostitution, when she claimed she was not? not if a restaurant is actually a bar or minutiae if a person is in fact a yoga instructor? I am going to go down to Colombia over Christmas and may have her get a letter from her employer, notarized, about her job, and her current landlord that she lives where she lives, notarized, and give to the embassy during her interview.. seems like the best way to avoid AP. We had a clerical error on job and education dates, (off by 6 months), for employment. if in fact they choose to travel to enquire about her job, this may simplify things.

They know by the name of the place many times. They care because they wont grant visas to hookers. They checked in that case simply because of some info she gave trying to be honest. Many months because they don't send some guy like you out of his government office to do the work. In this case its Thailand where things take a long time or seem to for an American.

I know of cases where the embassy has spent resources to check into the background info given about a biological father for example. In one case they spent about 5 months on this and in the end would not issue the visas for the children.

The embassy at times hires people or companies to do this work. The results are questionable to me but they don't seem to have much choice if they want further info.

If the embassy in Bogota suspects your fiancée or working with the FARC or drug dealers they will investigate. If she is simply a hairdresser there is little to worry about. My husband has lived in Colombia and says they don't have a sex industry there that brings in over 600 million dollars per year as in Thailand. Of course the drug business is far larger but its mostly export not employing the volume of people we have.

Keep in mind that notaries simply verify signatures and have nothing to do with the content of documents which is why most embassies don't require the use of them. Of course you can spend resources on that just as you suspect the embassy would not to convince them the docs are real.

[JoelyLeidy 3]

The In Colombia's case, the Notary attests that the person signing the document is the person he factually says are and records the document. The person, under perjury, attests, at the time of signing, that the content of the letter is factual and accurate. That is the purpose of Notarizing it. No, it is not high level evidence, but for me, when I look at documents, a notarized document gives me a level of comfort, though not overwhelming comfort.

[Ebunoluwa 6,136]

The consulate often hires foreign Nationals to do their field investigations, such as home visits or verifying a previous job.

Happens frequently during AP in high fraud countries. The field investigators pretend to be old friends and mingle.

For example to verify if someone is really free to marry they go to the beneficiaries home and ask is so and so home or is his wife there ?

Then if someone says yes I am his wife then BINGO they are busted. It happens that some beneficiaries are already married

and have a wife there that the petitioner knows nothing about or a live in boyfriend/girlfriend.
They also go around the neighborhood or family and ask questions.

For example, does so and so have a fiance ? Neighbors then respond no he is married, the pig they roasted for the wedding was great.
Yep. Happens. You bet it does.

If the consulate suspects something then you bet that they will try to get to the bottom of it or flat refuse the visa and return the petition.

[Ebunoluwa 6,136]

I. SECURITY NAME CHECKS (ALSO CALLED BACKGROUND CHECKS)
For public safety & welfare and national security reasons, all visa petitions under current regulation and procedure are placed through security name checks at three (3) locations: 1. USCIS office, 2. National Visa Center (NVC) and 3. the U.S. Consulate where the visa is ultimately issued.
There can be not one but several levels of security checking: There is an initial security name check done rountinely on all in-coming petitions. If the results produce a "lookout hit" or "red flag hit", the petition is placed in line for additional more intensive customized security screening, which could include a request for full fingerprints and which obviously has the undesirable effect of extending processing time for adjudication. While security checking is widely focused on the visa beneficiary, petitioners and even attorneys and consultants involved in a case are subject to security screening.

A Lookout Hit or Red Flag Hit can be generated on a visa petition, among other reasons, for any the following:
*Past arrest record
*Past criminal conviction record
*Past firearms record
*Past record of domestic violence or sexual offenses
*Past fingerprint record with any law enforcement agency
*Past visa or immigration history
*Watch List or Pending Charges "Hit": Petitioner or Beneficiary is currently on watch list or wanted on pending charges with any law enforcement or other government agency, (local, state, federal, FBI, INTERPOL, Homeland Security, State Department designated terrorist group list)
*Common or Similar Last Name with others in the database who have
past arrest or conviction records (sometimes called a "False Hit")


Under post 09-11 legislation such as USA Patriot Act, Border Security Act and Intelligence Reform Act, our Immigration Service, the Consulates, and Customs and Border Protection, have worked to significantly upgrade their technological capabilites, increase inter-agency data-sharing and coordinate investigative activities. The current policy directive is "zero tolerance" policy for security issues. The on-going U.S.Visit program is one example. Another important example is the implementation of a critical software upgrade which effectively links up Immigration and Consular databases with many local law enforcement data bases and the FBI criminal database.

Obviously, any security name check is only as good as the accuracy and completeness of the database upon which the check the done. Here is a sample of the principal databases upon which an immigration and consular security check can be done currently:
*NCIC (National Crime Information Center)(also called FBI criminal database)
*IBIS (Interagency Border Inspection System)
[Click Here for More Information on Security Checks with IBIS.]
*NIIS (Non-Immigrant Information System)
*CLASS (Consular Lookout and Support System)(This name-check database
in particular has been greatly expanded, now storing up to 18 million records.)
*CCD ( Consular Consolidated Date Base)(Stores 75 million records of past visa applications and outcomes)
*TIPOFF (Classified DOS Bureau of Intelligence database)
*NAILS (National Automated Immigration Lookout System)
*TECS II (Treasury Enforcement and Communucation System)
*TSC and TTIC databases (DOS Terrorist Screening system)


At USCIS (Homeland Security Department) stage, currently, NCIC, IBIS and NIIS database checks are done, with the option, if warranted, to do additional database checks.

At National Visa Center (State Department) stage, a separate independent NCIC database check is done by in-house FBI staff in connection with information supplied in the DS-230. Based on results, NVC has the option to request full fingerprints to be taken at post. NVC checks can usually be completed in 24 hours. In some limited cases involving high-risk visa applicants meeting certain specific criteria, NVC also does Security Advisory Opinions (SOAs) before sending the file to Consular Post.

At Consular stage, there are three (3) Visa Security name checks done: CONDOR, MANTIS AND MORE ANOTHER NCIC (via CLASS)
[Consulate has option, if warranted, to run full gamut of checks, such as CCD (past visa applications & results), TIPOFF (DOS Bureau of Intelligence), NAILS (Nat'l Automated Immigration Lookout System), TECS II (Treasury Dept. database), TSC & TTIC (DOS Terrorist screening)].

CONDOR refers to a check done mostly of information supplied on Form DS-157, and focuses on visa applicants with a potential terrorist, firearms or weapons background. CONDOR in most cases should be completed in 90 days or less. If not, contact the VO Public Inquiry line at Tel: 202-663-1225 or usvisa@state.gov

MANTIS refers to when potentially sensitive technologies might be used by the visa applicant in her visit to the U.S. If the visa applicant might employ a "critical-fields" technology in the U.S. which could have a "dual-use" such military or national security application, this check will be done to screen out a high-risk applicant. Most MANTIS checks can be done in 30 days. If not, contact the SAO Problem Resolution Unit at saoinquiries@state.gov.

NCIC (via CLASS) refers to the name check procedure done by the Consulate with the NCIC criminal database at FBI. This procedure screens visa applicants by name to see if there is a "hit" with the criminal database: that is, a person in the criminal database has the same or very similar name to the visa applicant.

"False Hits" Problem: Consular posts however have recently been inundated with "false hits" from 7 million new names added to the NCIC database, including persons with convictions for minor offenses such as simple DUIs and shoplifting. Many visa applicants with common names with those in the database get a "false hit": the refers to when a visa applicant's name matches a name in the datebase but is NOT actually that same person in the database, just a person with a common or very similar name. This places the case into what is called "Administrative Review". Under current rules, the Consulate is required in this circumstance to receive full clearance from FBI (via the NVC) before Consulate can issue the visa. It may require a full fingerprint check and customized investigation. Full clearance from FBI (via the NVC) in most cases can take 4 to 6 weeks, but in some cases much longer and even months.

"False hits" have become a major problem for some visa applicants. There are reportedly an alarming number of false hits caused by similar or identical or very similar names, or errors, inconsistencies or discrepencies in listed names in official documents. This is true especially in countries, such as the Latin countries, where there are only a few surnames and name-similarity is common, or record-keeping accuracy in official documents is dubious. Reportedly, approximately half of all names in the NCIC database are Latino, and this has resulted in a high number of false hits for individuals with common or very similar last names at Consulates in the Latin countries. Applicants presently are not allowed the opportunity to prove that they are not the same person as that on the database, nor is there a way to initiate security checking in advance of the visa application.

Thus, the best protection for visa applicants to avoid name check problems and delays resulting from Administrative Review at the Consulates and USCIS is: providing full, accurate and truthful name information (first, last, middle, and other) in all forms and documents, timely submission of local police clearance reports and promptly complying with any request for full fingerprints.


*SPECIAL NOTE ON EFFORTS TO AVOID OR CIRCUMVENT "FALSE HIT" BACKGROUND SECURITY CHECK*: Except in the most extra-ordinary circumstances, advance efforts to avoid or circumvent "false hit" before it happens, or complete a background security check in advance, such early submission to the Consulate of the DS-156 and DS-157 or police, arrest or fingerprint records, will probably not be fruitful. As stated by AILA: "Although attorneys have attempted to be pro-active and expedite the process by submitting copies of arrest records, final court-dispositions and attorney-initiated FBI results [and DS-156 and 157], at the initial visa application, consular officers are required to obtain fingerprints in a NCIC name check "hit". Once a post has received a response from the FBI via the National Visa Center (NVC), it may at the consular officer's discretion accept documentation from the applicant that matches the extract provided by the FBI. However, consular posts will not accept submission of all related documents in lieu of initiating required security checks and fingerprinting." See 22 CFR Section 41.105(b)(2), and "DOS Answers to AILA's Questions" (Oct. 02, 2002), published on AILA InfoNet at Doc. No. 02100340 (posted Oct. 03, 2002).
*SPECIAL NOTE ON NEW SOFTWARE TO EXPEDITE "FALSE HIT" CLEARANCES*: Department of State (DOS) has initiated worldwide deployment of new computer software that is expected to greatly reduced the clearance time for applicants who have been the subject of "false hits" in the visa security check process. The new software will allow posts to capture the applicant's digital fingerprints and check them electronically with the FBI's NCIC database within 24 hours. DOS has launched this new software through a pilot program at consular posts in Mexico City, and reports that the pilot program has been able to clear "false hits" in as little as same day (sometimes in one or two hours). Worldwide deployment of the new software to expected to be finalized once the Technical Communications Security Office approves the program. See "DOS Answers to AILA'S Questions" (March 23, 2006), published on AILA InfoNet at Doc. No. 06041060 (posted Apr. 10, 2006).

II. ADMINISTRATIVE REVIEW
"Administrative Review" refers to a Consular Official placing the case "on hold" because the Visa Petitioner or Beneficiary FAILED TO PASS the security name check or background check, or because the Consulate or State Department or Homeland Security NEEDS TO INVESTIGATE some issue or matter in the case more closely. Cases placed into Administrative Review can ADD WEEKS OR EVEN MONTHS to processing time and final decision on visa issuance, typically in most cases AT LEAST 4 to 8 weeks additional time. Under current regulation, there is no right of appeal within State Department or Homeland Security for administrative review status. It is suggested that visa petitioners and beneficiaries keep track of the status of their case as best as possible, and secure, if possible, the reason or reasons their case has been placed into administrative review, which at least helps to relieve some anxiety during the waiting time.
**STATUS CHECK OF CASES IN ADMINISTRATIVE REVIEW: Status Checks of cases in administrative review should first be addressed to the Consulate in question. Click Here for List of Consulates. The State Department's Office of Visa Services can also assist in status checking of cases which are unusually delayed. Tel: 202-663-1225 (Punch 1, Then 0, Avg. Wait Time Approx. 15 minutes to Speak with a Live "Visa Specialist", ET 8:30 AM to 5:00PM). E-Mail: usvisa@state.gov Click Here for More Information. For people who want to be active during the painful waiting period, especially if it becomes protracted, here are two suggestions: 1. Request in Writing Information from Immigration Service and the State Department under the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) regarding the reason for the Administrative Delay. See: USCIS Freedom of Information Act Request. and State Department Freedom of Information Request. 2. Order the Visa Applicant's FBI record directly from the FBI and have it ready in case the Embassy requests same. See: FBI Criminal History Record.