Still in AP

[amour-et-foi 7]

Hello VJ. My wife went for interview on Dec 1. They asked for info which I then sent to her. She brought all that info in on Dec 14 and they took her passport and told her that they will review everything and call her with a decision. My question is how do you know if your case has entered AP. I check the CEAC everyday and it still list the 'Foreign State' and 'Place of Processing' as the same.

[JFH 12,189]

*~*~*moved from Africa sub-Sahara forum to "administrative processing" as question is not country-specific*~*~*

[Arif87 4]

Did the CO give your wife a paper that says 221 (g) Additional processing or Administrative processing. As I had my interview in Nov and was given a paper saying additional processing the CEAC site stills shows Ready for me. I hear that they don't always update the status on the site regularly.

[amour-et-foi 7]

Yes and she returned with what she needed.

[Ebunoluwa 6,136]

It takes a certain amount of time and therefore administrative processing, though short, to review the items you submitted.

You may even see AP on the ceac site right before it will say issued.
You won't know when it will be the long AP for security/background/ document verification or just a few days

of internal processing unless they will tell you.

[kareelina 42]

Send them an email asking about your visa. I went through same problem my son visa was issued the other one was in AP for 3 weeks when I sent email asking they replied by saying all the visas are issued . They do not update the Web site and till now although I got the passport but in the Web site still in AP

[amour-et-foi 7]

Hello VJ. My issue.  Wife went for interview on Dec 1st in Togo.  She was initially denied and giver the 221 form because we needed phone records and photos which I sent to her and she brought back to the embassy on Dec 14th.  They then took all the information and her passport.  I began to check the CEAC. We were put into AP on Dec 14th with one status update on Dec 22nd and no updates since then.  I understand that AP can take a while, also our process began around the holidays which slows things down and the presidential administration is about to change as well which can cause delays.  So we waited until a month to contact the embassy and when we had no updates, I emailed on Friday and she went to the embassy today to see if they needed anything.  They told her that they didn't need anything and to keep her patience and they will call her...

 

My question is should I be concerned.  i know that we are in real AP and that they are doing all kinds of checks.  Is this normal or is this a function of where she's at, in sub-Sahara Africa or something like that.  Is there anyone out there that has had or is experiencing the same dilema.  I know this process is difficult, I just need some insight if anyone can provide any.  

 

Thanx

[geowrian 22,335]

That's not uncommon for many countries in that region. One month of AP isn't a concern either. I would suggest just keep checking in regularly, but otherwise it's just a waiting game at this point. Good luck.

[amour-et-foi 7]

Just a quick question.  What does the DOS check when they do security checks and why does it take so long.  Do they look over all your personal information you submitted like your birth certificate.  Do they contact certain individuals.  If you submitted certain types of evidence do they check with those companies like in you give phone records or internet provider records, do they check with those companies.  I just seems strange why these things take so long.  The U.S. is supposed to be one of, if not the, most advanced countries on the planet.  Getting all these checks done doesn't seem to need to take all the time they take.  I know with the climate of the world today all these checks need to be done and checking your criminal history and background are automatic.  i just don't know why its slow as hell.  Someone fill me in... 

[Ladyj 13]

We all have the same question.....smh at the US Government

[charmander 692]

FBI background checks are black box. No one knows exactly what is going on but a lot of speculation. Obvious checks are name matches, recent travel history, fingerprint based criminal records, etc. There is also this document on internet that may help; little outdated but these types of things don't change significantly over the years. https://www.oig.dhs.gov/assets/Mgmt/OIG_06-06_Nov05.pdf

 

The reason it takes so long is probably whenever there is a flag raised for whatever reason, someone needs to manually go over your case and give clearance; or they may ask for additional information from the agency that raises the flag and as in any government things are crazy slow, get lost in the mail, etc etc. The other thing is they are political, they don't want to show themselves as acting very quickly on certain cases. On paper, they show themselves as they spent hours/days/weeks/months on certain cases, but god knows exactly how much time they spend.

[geowrian 22,335]

It goes through several security checks with different agencies, but the FBI one is generally the one peopled point fingers at. The FBI does not disclose many details of what those checks include.

 

And if they see anything, they have to verify it. These checks aren't one where you want them to come back inconclusive...I doubt USCIS would approve a petition like that.

Edited January 19, 2017 by geowrian

[David & Diana R 1,005]

38 minutes ago, geowrian said:

It goes through several security checks with different agencies, but the FBI one is generally the one peopled point fingers at. The FBI does not disclose many details of what those checks include.

 

And if they see anything, they have to verify it. These checks aren't one where you want them to come back inconclusive...I doubt USCIS would approve a petition like that.

In all fairness imagine being one of those FBI Agents sitting at a desk with perhaps a stack of 100 or more background checks to perform.  And they never stop coming in.  It's not like you are the only person they are checking on.  I am pretty sure those agents are over-worked and likely underpaid.  Just sayin'.

[geowrian 22,335]

23 minutes ago, David & Zoila said:

In all fairness imagine being one of those FBI Agents sitting at a desk with perhaps a stack of 100 or more background checks to perform.  And they never stop coming in.  It's not like you are the only person they are checking on.  I am pretty sure those agents are over-worked and likely underpaid.  Just sayin'.

No argument from me there! Overworked and (probably) underpaid for sure.

[amour-et-foi 7]

Man!!!  Now I'm starting to understand it.  I read the information in the link the charmander sent and the statement that David & Zolla made and it gave me a whole new perspective.  This is an impossible situation for all these departments.  There's not alot of intra-agency cooperation and no centralized way they all function.  With the U.S. being by far the #1 immigrant destination in the world and for any number of reasons, from family to tourism to employment, all theses agencies are overloaded with trying to get everything through the red tape.  So one just kicks the can down the road to the next because all the volumes of work that needs to be done.  

 

The only pure way to make this whole process work smoothly is to make all agencies involved in the process is to make them all run through one centralized process.  and to do that they would would have to SHUT ALL IMMIGRATION DOWN.  Nothing coming in and nothing going out for lets say 1 - 5 years.   But that would be impossible.  I mean you can't fix a 'machine' ,to say, while it is running.  You have to turn it off to repair it.  Sure you could stop the family based visas but if all is shut down there is no tourism, education, or employment visas and that is where the problem lies.  The major sports leagues couldn't bring in any foreign players nor could foreign golf or tennis players enter the country to compete in tournaments. Also, Americans couldn't compete or tour internationally.  Foreign tourist dollars dry up and foreign investment from other employment opportunities collapse.  Now the government could try to give special exception to these types of entities but then there would be political backlash from 'Average Joe Guy' who would then see the immigration system benefiting the powerful and wealthy, causing backlash at the voters booth...

 

So basically put.  This thing ain't getting much better any time soon.  It's a surprise they do as well as they do, even with all the tech they do have.  I just have to suck it up and keep my faith, love, and patience.  All will be fine in the end.  I thank all for responding. One