Almost 2 months AP - Austrian resident - DS 5535

[Cashorino 1]

I am an Austrian resident and student, born and raised here. I was in the US around 1 1/2 years on an ESTA.

 I recently applied for a non immigrant visa to do an internship in the U.S.

 

My parents are from a muslim country that was on the travel ban list and my last name is really muslim even though I am not.

 

My case is for almost two months on AP, the case last updated is almost 2 months ago, NO updates whatsoever.

I got the DS 5535 to fill out which I immediately did. 

 

I don't know what to expect. Everywhere people get their status updates in AP within a few weeks and mine hasn't even been updated for almost TWO months. 

 

Can someone help me out or give me any kind of advice? I am strating to get really frustrated here

[Ben&Zian 4,397]

Not everywhere or everyone gets up dates. AP is open ended and some people spend years in AP. While a lot can be a week or two, months in not unheard of or even uncommon. 

[Jeanne Adil 1,651]

we have seen posts of VJ members in AP a year while the ds5535 is investigated

you will need considerable patience to get thru this

 

so did you present a designated sponsor?

 

 you are not currently studying in the United Statesbut want to come over to complete an internship, the J-1 Intern visa or the J-1 Trainee visa is likely what you would need. ... You may intern in the U.S. for 12 months, or train for 18 months. For both, you must go through a designated sponsor to obtain your J-1 visa.Dec 10, 2014

Edited June 11, 2019 by adil-rafa

[Cashorino 1]

10 minutes ago, Ben&Zian said:

Not everywhere or everyone gets up dates. AP is open ended and some people spend years in AP. While a lot can be a week or two, months in not unheard of or even uncommon. 

Oh I wasn't aware of that. I thought that the cases last update on the ceac website is always up2date and everyone gets updated when the case is being worked on. It got at least updated once after I submitted additional documentation.

Also yeah, I was looking and almost everyone got their APs done with within a few weeks..

 

3 minutes ago, adil-rafa said:

we have seen posts of VJ members in AP a year while the ds5535 is investigated

you will need considerable patience to get thru this

 

so did you present a designated sponsor?

 

 you are not currently studying in the United Statesbut want to come over to complete an internship, the J-1 Intern visa or the J-1 Trainee visa is likely what you would need. ... You may intern in the U.S. for 12 months, or train for 18 months. For both, you must go through a designated sponsor to obtain your J-1 visa.Dec 10, 2014

Yes of course I did all of it with a designated sponsor.

So the ds 5535 will make my case take much longer than other people's APs? This is so sadenning, can you show me threads of others who had to fill out the DS 5535? I want to see how they were doing and what happened eventually

[Jeanne Adil 1,651]

9 minutes ago, Cashorino said:

Oh I wasn't aware of that. I thought that the cases last update on the ceac website is always up2date and everyone gets updated when the case is being worked on. It got at least updated once after I submitted additional documentation.

Also yeah, I was looking and almost everyone got their APs done with within a few weeks..

 

Yes of course I did all of it with a designated sponsor.

So the ds 5535 will make my case take much longer than other people's APs? This is so sadenning, can you show me threads of others who had to fill out the DS 5535? I want to see how they were doing and what happened eventually

there is a complete huge posts here in  VJ about the ds5535 you can read all 260 pages although it is closed now for further comments

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[JennaL 151]

14 minutes ago, Cashorino said:

Oh I wasn't aware of that. I thought that the cases last update on the ceac website is always up2date and everyone gets updated when the case is being worked on. It got at least updated once after I submitted additional documentation.

Also yeah, I was looking and almost everyone got their APs done with within a few weeks..

@Cashorino - there is also a "part 2" for the ds5535 thread found here:

https://www.visajourney.com/forums/topic/706690-form-ds-5535-supplemental-questions-for-visa-applicants-part-2/

 

My fiancé (Norwegian citizen his entire adult life, but born in Iran, not muslim) waited 2.5 years for a visitor's visa and was also given the ds5535 for our fiancé visa.  It has been 9 months with no word from the embassy.

 

Not to be discouraging, but it seems to be taking quite a while for the extra vetting to complete.  You'll just need to have patience and hope it ends sooner rather than later.

[Cashorino 1]

20 hours ago, JennaL said:

@Cashorino - there is also a "part 2" for the ds5535 thread found here:

https://www.visajourney.com/forums/topic/706690-form-ds-5535-supplemental-questions-for-visa-applicants-part-2/

 

My fiancé (Norwegian citizen his entire adult life, but born in Iran, not muslim) waited 2.5 years for a visitor's visa and was also given the ds5535 for our fiancé visa.  It has been 9 months with no word from the embassy.

 

Not to be discouraging, but it seems to be taking quite a while for the extra vetting to complete.  You'll just need to have patience and hope it ends sooner rather than later.

I understand but I wasn't born in any of the travel ban countries. I was born and raised in Austria, only my parents were born in one of the forbidden countries..I have zero ties to their home country.

 

This is really frustrating to say the least. Lucky me I guess, huh? Now I need to wait for god knows how long and I probably have to look elsewhere for an internship, I can't wait for 6 months or even longer. I have been waiting for 2 months already with zero updates, this will throw me behind my schedule for getting my degree for sure.

[JennaL 151]

1 hour ago, Cashorino said:

I understand but I wasn't born in any of the travel ban countries. I was born and raised in Austria, only my parents were born in one of the forbidden countries..I have zero ties to their home country.

 

This is really frustrating to say the least. Lucky me I guess, huh? Now I need to wait for god knows how long and I probably have to look elsewhere for an internship, I can't wait for 6 months or even longer. I have been waiting for 2 months already with zero updates, this will throw me behind my schedule for getting my degree for sure.

Yes, I have heard that even if you have never been to any currently banned country, but you have immediate relatives who come from there, even if they do not currently live there, it will trigger a ds5535 for you. Basically, if you have any connection at all to a banned country, weather or not you've ever been there, you are in line for extreme vetting. If you ask me, it's complete overkill, and causes a lot of undue hardship to those of us waiting to be reunited with loved ones. There seems to be more of a push lately in getting government to be more transparent with the process and finding ways to speed it up.  Good luck, and I hope you won't be waiting for too much longer!

[Cashorino 1]

I don't know currently it's super annoying. There still hasn't been one update so far, it's like they are not even working on my case, that's what annoys me the most even after emailing them the update date for my case didn't change.