The dreaded DS-5535 thread for Montreal. Post here and support each other (PART 2)

[AP_since_May2023 37]

On 1/25/2023 at 10:20 AM, LAMA9 said:

Congrats @addpeace!  Super exciting for you - just think 3-4 months from now you will be on the other side of this nightmare!  Let me know if you would like to be added to our WOM group chat and to the tracker spreadsheet!  It's a great view of what you can expect over the next few months . 

Can you please add me as well? Thank you.

[throwitaway 189]

On 8/3/2023 at 10:22 AM, Kara.gana said:

@throwitaway Oh, that’s not what we’re hopping for. The CO said she was approved and kept her passport. We have not received any emails from Montreal and my husbands and my daughters CEAC status hasn’t changed to anything. 

Unfortunately, an oral approval at interview must be taken with a grain of salt. It’s common for a CO to recommend approval but the case is later sent into 221g when reviewed by a supervisor. CEAC status is your best reference - a visa will not be printed on a passport without the CEAC status changing to “Issued”

[AP_since_May2023 37]

24 minutes ago, throwitaway said:

Unfortunately, an oral approval at interview must be taken with a grain of salt. It’s common for a CO to recommend approval but the case is later sent into 221g when reviewed by a supervisor. CEAC status is your best reference - a visa will not be printed on a passport without the CEAC status changing to “Issued”

This is true. I was verbally approved by the CO and had my passport collected at the interview, only to be placed in AP after the interview.

[AP_since_May2023 37]

Has anyone tried to file Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) with the Department of State to see why their case is undergoing AP?

[cala2023 11]

Hi all, just wanted to update. Brief recap: my husband interviewed in Montreal on April 27 and was given 221g and sent a DS5535 the same day to which we returned promptly. His case received several updates early then an update in mid July. Other than that we have heard nothing else from the consulate. 

 

I reached out to the US senator's office from my state and requested they contact the consulte for any information and possible expenditure to which they promptly did and received a lengthy response from the consulate the same day. The main part of their response is as follows:

 

"Unfortunately, due to the national security nature the U.S. visa process, the Department of State will not disclose why a case has been placed into administrative processing, and issues can often vary greatly with regard to complexity. For example, the consular official may simply need to verify additional biographical information. However, it could be much more complicated like verifying previous travel itineraries or needing a foreign country to provide criminal records, etc. That being said, there may be no issues with his application, but it may have been flagged for an internal quality control review or audit.

 

Most administrative processing holds can be resolved very quickly, but some take a substantially longer time. During this period, no congressional office can request expedited review or appear to influence the outcome of the application."

 

The two big and disappointing takeaways from this are that you may be placed into AP and your life put on hold for absolutely no reason other than "quality control" and that no one may intervene on your behalf. I found the quality control statement particularly interesting as I've never seen that mentioned as a reason on any forums I've read in regards to this process. Anyway just wanted to share and good luck to everyone out there stuck in limbo.

 

Edited August 5, 2023 by cala2023

[LYV 42]

1 hour ago, cala2023 said:

Hi all, just wanted to update. Brief recap: my husband interviewed in Montreal on April 27 and was given 221g and sent a DS5535 the same day to which we returned promptly. His case received several updates early then an update in mid July. Other than that we have heard nothing else from the consulate. 

 

I reached out to the US senator's office from my state and requested they contact the consulte for any information and possible expenditure to which they promptly did and received a lengthy response from the consulate the same day. The main part of their response is as follows:

 

"Unfortunately, due to the national security nature the U.S. visa process, the Department of State will not disclose why a case has been placed into administrative processing, and issues can often vary greatly with regard to complexity. For example, the consular official may simply need to verify additional biographical information. However, it could be much more complicated like verifying previous travel itineraries or needing a foreign country to provide criminal records, etc. That being said, there may be no issues with his application, but it may have been flagged for an internal quality control review or audit.

 

Most administrative processing holds can be resolved very quickly, but some take a substantially longer time. During this period, no congressional office can request expedited review or appear to influence the outcome of the application."

 

The two big and disappointing takeaways from this are that you may be placed into AP and your life put on hold for absolutely no reason other than "quality control" and that no one may intervene on your behalf. I found the quality control statement particularly interesting as I've never seen that mentioned as a reason on any forums I've read in regards to this process. Anyway just wanted to share and good luck to everyone out there stuck in limbo.

 

Thank you for updating. Our consulate officer said we were put in AP by random so this make a lot of sense. And yes it’s totally unfair. It is helpful to know though that we are not alone in this. Good luck and here’s hoping for a speedy processing. 

[LAMA9 118]

On 8/4/2023 at 8:09 PM, SGtoMurica said:

Can you please add me as well? Thank you.

Hi @SGtoMurica, the group I was referencing in that post is inactive now as we have all been issued our visas.  That group was formed back in early 2022 when there was a large number of us all filing WOM's at the same time.  

Here is the spreadsheet for anyone who is interested in seeing timelines of the various WOM cases from that particular subset of 2022 Montreal K1 & CR1/IR1 filers:  https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1oh7cj_1HiWa-JH82xOeRtYb6gJWjU3KcF7ALuyQmV4w/edit?usp=sharing

 

It may be helpful for all those currently on this thread who are filing WOMs to start your own chat and spreadsheet to keep one another updated.  I know we all found it extremely helpful while we were going through it.  

[AP_since_May2023 37]

4 hours ago, LAMA9 said:

Hi @SGtoMurica, the group I was referencing in that post is inactive now as we have all been issued our visas.  That group was formed back in early 2022 when there was a large number of us all filing WOM's at the same time.  

Here is the spreadsheet for anyone who is interested in seeing timelines of the various WOM cases from that particular subset of 2022 Montreal K1 & CR1/IR1 filers:  https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1oh7cj_1HiWa-JH82xOeRtYb6gJWjU3KcF7ALuyQmV4w/edit?usp=sharing

 

It may be helpful for all those currently on this thread who are filing WOMs to start your own chat and spreadsheet to keep one another updated.  I know we all found it extremely helpful while we were going through it.  

 

Thank you for sharing this. It's ridiculous that it takes WOM in order to overcome this. Are you aware of any cases getting rejected after WOM?

[throwitaway 189]

7 hours ago, SGtoMurica said:

 

Thank you for sharing this. It's ridiculous that it takes WOM in order to overcome this. Are you aware of any cases getting rejected after WOM?

If a case is refused, it would have been refused anyway, with or without the WoM. The notion that a WoM will force a refusal because they can’t finish their checks is nonsense. 

Edited August 8, 2023 by throwitaway

[EveK 3]

Hello, Im new in this group. I had my visa interview today in Montreal today for IR1 and put me on administrative prossessing under 221(g),  gave me a white slip and asked me to complete DS 5535 form through a office.com link. The interview went very well and I was shocked to see the outcome. I have three kids all under 5 with my US citizen husband and totally disheartened with their decision. Can anyone tell me how long is the processing? I will be filling out the form and send it tomorrow. 

[AP_since_May2023 37]

2 hours ago, throwitaway said:

If a case is refused, it would have been refused anyway, with or without the WoM. The notion that a WoM will force a refusal because they can’t finish their checks is nonsense. 

 

Yes, that's true. I am just wondering if the CO still can't make a decision because they do not have sufficient information about an applicant, based on the available information they may have to deny the visa.

[AP_since_May2023 37]

30 minutes ago, EveK said:

Hello, Im new in this group. I had my visa interview today in Montreal today for IR1 and put me on administrative prossessing under 221(g),  gave me a white slip and asked me to complete DS 5535 form through a office.com link. The interview went very well and I was shocked to see the outcome. I have three kids all under 5 with my US citizen husband and totally disheartened with their decision. Can anyone tell me how long is the processing? I will be filling out the form and send it tomorrow. 

 

Unfortunately this seems to be somewhat variable. Although the consulate may say 60 days, it is likely longer than 90 days. The most common timeline I've seen appears to be around 6 months. But some as long as 6 years. This is without WOM of course.

[AP_since_May2023 37]

On 6/27/2023 at 7:57 PM, LYV said:

Hi There,

 

I’ve been following along silently for a couple weeks. It’s nice to be able to read everyone stories for some comfort that we’re not alone on this. My husband and I went for our interview for our EB-1A visa May 26th 2023. We had no idea the DS5535 was even an option. I knew some people got chosen for extended processing but anything I saw was the person had been refused entry to the states before. That there was a reason. For us there is no reason. Our lawyer didn’t prepare us for this possibility. It’s been 5 years since my husband started the process, he added me on his and it’s been two years for me. Our lawyer said you’re already approved so there shouldn’t be a problem. We walked into that embassy happy as clams. We assumed when answering questions just to answer simply and not extrapolate  which I now think was the mistake. But usually at border crossings that’s how you answer so it’s what we did. We answered about 3 or 4 basic very conversational almost questions of the officer. She was super nice.
 

She said, So what will you be doing in the states? My husband answers I’ll be working in the industry in LA., (I didn’t answer here and maybe I should have about my job etc but she was on to the next question)

 

Have you been working on anything recently? Yes (listed tv show name he is working on) 

 

Have you lived anywhere outside of the US or Canada? No 

 

Where have you travelled to over the last 5 years? Listed South Africa, USA, Costa Rica, Mexico, and Portugal. 
 

My husband did most of the talking. Not for any reason it just kind of happened that way. I’m not sure if I should’ve spoke up more. She said okay I’m going to

give your passports back to you. We looked shell shocked. And she said you’ve been randomly selected for extensive processing. This happens sometimes. I said something to my husband about how he answered one of the questions. She heard and said it was nothing that you said. It typically takes two weeks for processing. She said I could keep your passports but sometimes it takes longer so I’m going to give them back. 
 

That was it. We went back to the hotel and got the email in the afternoon. It took us almost 2 weeks to fill everything out because we’ve travelled a lot and I grew up in a border town and a lot of my family is in the states so I had to figure out as many times as I could every time I went to the states (usually 5 times a year or more) Plus backpacking through Europe after college and various other trips. So we sent it in on June 7, 2023. Two weeks has past and nothing. I mean I didn’t expect it since what I’ve seen on here but I think my husband wanted to be hopeful. I’m 37 and we are wanting to start a family soon. It’s so hard to do that with this looming. I think I read on here or somewhere else that someone had a baby while on DS5535 and then the embassy wanted another interview with in Montreal with the 7 month old baby present. I don’t want to complicate things more. But who knows how long this will take.
 

I also found this company on YouTube who is made up of ex-immigration officers and it made me even more upset that I just trusted the lawyer and didn’t do more research which I usually always do crazy too much research with stuff like this. They said that when you go there the officer has never seen you case before. That if you bring extra proof and stuff in that you should find ways to give as much information as possible to the officer because they start at “this person does not deserve to be approved” and you are basically convincing them otherwise! Which I thought was insane. Why do you go through all the paperwork and approval process then? It makes no sense… and if that’s what they want more extrapolated answers then why isn’t this communicated in any way? 
 

So now we are on this waited game again. Hoping it’s going faster now post pandemic but we’ll see I guess. I was wondering has anyone started an Excel sheet for tracking everyone’s cases and dates, and approvals? I know they do that on other threads for the first part of the approval process to kind of get an idea of where they might be in the line of approvals.  

 

I watched many of the YouTube videos made up of those ex-consulate officers too. I'm not sure I trust them to be perfectly honest. They mentioned that there is usually a reason for the denial. But in my extensive reading so far, it appears that many of us selected are either due to TAL, or MENA background. Of which there is really no choice but to file WOM to overcome.

 

It's ironic because the US is trying to combat the loss of STEM talent, while on the other hand it is implementing TAL on us. 

[Inveigh 69]

On 8/7/2023 at 8:32 AM, LAMA9 said:

Hi @SGtoMurica, the group I was referencing in that post is inactive now as we have all been issued our visas.  That group was formed back in early 2022 when there was a large number of us all filing WOM's at the same time.  

Here is the spreadsheet for anyone who is interested in seeing timelines of the various WOM cases from that particular subset of 2022 Montreal K1 & CR1/IR1 filers:  https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1oh7cj_1HiWa-JH82xOeRtYb6gJWjU3KcF7ALuyQmV4w/edit?usp=sharing

 

It may be helpful for all those currently on this thread who are filing WOMs to start your own chat and spreadsheet to keep one another updated.  I know we all found it extremely helpful while we were going through it.  

Can you send me the link in a private message its not working for me

[Inveigh 69]

9 hours ago, SGtoMurica said:

 

Yes, that's true. I am just wondering if the CO still can't make a decision because they do not have sufficient information about an applicant, based on the available information they may have to deny the visa.

This actually scares me beyond belief if this is true