AP when trying to visit my girlfriend in USA

[Servando 0]

Hi everyone,

 

I'm a Spanish citizen who met an American girl in Madrid (Spain) two years ago. We have been together since then and about 6 months ago her family insisted in meeting me, so I applied for an ESTA.  It was accepted at the very moment, so I bought my plane ticket and two weeks after, when I just decided to have a peek (just in case), they changed the situation and rejected it!

 

So the only option was to apply to a tourist visa (B1/B2), thing that I did in London because at that moment I was working as an Architect in England. Well, I took my interview, was honest all the way through and took all kind of papers that they kept. At the end, they gave me the 221g form and put me through administrative processing.

 

That was on the 27th March. I kept waiting, and checked the online status almost everyday. On 27th April, just one month after, they checked the case again, but since then nobody has looked at the case at all. I keep waiting and I've been for 5 months now. I called on 30th June, because you have the right to call 60 days after AP starts. A quite arrogant woman answered telling me to send an email. I sent the email and didn't receive any answer at all.

 

As the last chance, my girlfriend's dad talked to an attorney who said that we should call again and ask If the part holding the case is the European Union o the USA, because according to him in many cases the EU holds cases (it doesn't make sense to me, but anyway). I called today again and they told me to send an email. After insist that I sent an email and they never answered, they gave me a different email address, so I emailed today as well.

 

This seems like a maze, and it's quite annoying, first because they have never told me the reason why I'm through AP, and secondly because I have never done anything illegal. No criminal record, not even a speeding ticket: nothing.

 

I'm most than thankful if someone decides to answer. Just want some feedback, maybe read some of your cases, everything that could help me get through all this and the tension they're putting on my relationship.

 

Thanks all.

 

 

[Boiler 43,432]

In the vast majority of cases I have seen the applicant has had a pretty good idea why in this case ESTA was not approved and why there are in AP, certainly help if you shared this.

 

AP, assuming it is background checks, is something everybody goes through however something this long is very unusual, even more so for a Spaniard.

[howswedeitis 0]

Servando, did you get your visa in the end?

[SusieQQQ 11,584]

Judging by this list of reasons for ESTA denial, may explain the long AP process. They don’t seem to deny on a whim.

 

https://www.official-esta.com/esta-resources/reasons-why-an-esta-application-gets-denied/

[Coco8 1,039]

London embassy has been doing some crazy stuff. There is another thread about this German Professor who got an O1 to become chair of a department at an university in the US and they have had him in AP for over 6 months and they also put his H1B on AP for months. It might be because he has a common name (!). 

[Boiler 43,432]

I know someone who got a O through London.

 

Whatever the issue is I am pretty sure it is not a Consulate matter.