AlbaEagles<3

I filed a I-130 for both my mother and father back on October 2015. During the process I got a notice that my mothers application was transferred to a different office. Well, since then, my father's application has been approved (NOA2, and got welcome letter from NVC), while my mother's case is still pending with USCIS.

My questions:

1. It's been almost a month now since we received the welcome letter from NVC for my father's case. Is there an expiration date for this? Can we keep waiting, or will they close out the case if we don't reply in some amount of time? (we would like to move forward for them together)

2. Will it cause any problems if we move forward with my father's application even thought my mother's is still pending? (I assume no, but I see some questions on the DS-260 asking if they are coming to USA together).

Thanks,

AlbaEagles

Does anyone know whether the foreign countries immigration services know about the NOA1 extension letter? I know that in a lot of counties that I visit, you must go though passport control (usually after the security check). I've seen them check whether people have valid visas/greencards/documents for the country of destination.

Do you think that these border guards are aware of the NOA1 extension letter if it is presented to them? Will they simply look at the date on the expired Green Card and assume it's not valid (maybe ignoring the extension letter)? Do they even pay attention to the expiration date on the Green Card?

Anyone have any experience with this?

Thanks,

AlbaEagles

Thanks EAbbas!!! Hopefully your approval will come soon too. I know how hard it is to wait...

Thanks Bigdog

So, we have been on AP since September 8th. After many many many calls to the NVC, emails to the Embassy, and weekly calls to my Congressman, I think we are getting somewhere.

The embassy called my fiance today and told her to bring in her Passport. I am assuming that this is a good indication that we are approved? How long does it usually take from when you give them the passport until visa is in your hand?

Thanks.

AlbaEagles

You can check the status of your case by calling NVC, 202-663-1225, press 1 then 0 to speak with the operator. We have been in AP for almost 2 months now, same story as you, no reason, just have to wait

I called the NVC again. It turns out it was a false alarm. Either the lady that I spoke to yesterday lied to me, or she was looking at the wrong case. The person I talked to today said there has been no change.

Sometimes I think these people do this on purpose to see us suffer. It's almost like it gives them some kind of pleasure to see us suffer. There really is no other explanation for this behaviour.

Thanks Rmstafford. Actually that leaves me with more questions. What can these "Work Papers" refer to? This is for a K-1 Fiance visa, not a Work Visa, are these "working papers" still applicable?

Again, thanks for your help...

Thanks Myriad, i'll post the meaning if I ever find out. I've been trying to decipher it all day long.

We have been in Administrative Processing since September 8th 2011.

I called NVC today, like I do every week, asking about my case. I was expecting to hear the same thing that i've heard for the last month and a half "Your case is under Administrative Processing, blah blah blah".

However, today the story was different. I actually talked to someone that gave me more information than usual. She said that the embassy sent us a "reminder email" and that the notes in the case say something like "Documentation is complete.... Needs WP without FP". She had no clue what this means. I'm having my fiance check her email and SPAM to see if she got anything for the embassy.

Does anyone know what this means? I have been told since Sept 8th that we were in AP. What can this "reminder" be? What can WP and FP be?

So, I called NVC, like I do every week, asking about my case. I was expecting to hear the same thing that i've heard for the last month and a half "Your case is under Administrative Processing, blah blah blah".

However, today the story was differant. I actually talked to someone that gave me more information than usual. She said that the embassy sent us a "reminder email" and that the notes in the case say something like "Documentation is complete.... Needs WP without FP". She had no clue what this means. I'm having my fiance check her email and SPAM to see if she got anything for the embassy.

Does anyone know what this means? I have been told since Sept 8th that we were in AP. What can this "reminder" be? What can WP and FP be?

We submitted every document that they requested, every piece of proof possible, and we still got a 221g and were put in AP. We have been in AP for exactly 40 days now and they will not tell us how much longer we need to wait. I know of other Albanians on this board that have submitted all of the paperwork that was required, and provided a lot of proof, and the CO gave them 221g, put them in AP, and asked for even more proof. It looks like the majority of VJ Albanians are getting AP...

Looks like we are approaching yet another potential Government shutdown this Friday. Also 1.6 Billion in proposed Government spending cuts.

If either of these happen, do you all think we can be negatively affected (longer processing times, higher fees, etc...)?

Thoughts?

http://www.ibtimes.com/articles/219468/20110925/shutdown-government-shutdown-gridlock-hurricane-irene-irene-floods-tornado-disaster-democrats-republ.htm

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/09/24/government-shutdown-looms_n_979033.html

Because the whole system is one big mess.

hi, i would like to ask if there are people here who had their interview from 1st to 2nd week of September and still waiting for their visas. i was interviewed last September 8 and still waiting for it. i just want to know the recent waiting period for the receiving of visa. thank you

Yup. My fiance interviewed on September 8th in Albania and they told her they need additional administrative processing. Is that the case with you as well?

I hope the process gets better too, but some part of me says that it probably won't unless a seriously large number of people start to speak up about it. From what I see, ALL people that I talk to, hate the visa process, but once they get through it, they are so relieved that they just want to forget about it and go on with their lives. I talked to a few people at work these past months that are from various nationalities and came on various types of visas. I one thing all of them have in common is that they all have the same negative view of this process. I was having this conversation with my Indian friend just today, he came on a student visa. He said that he was denied so many times, that finally when he was approved he thought they were just joking with him, and he didn't believe them until he actually passed immigration here in the US.

As for people that have never been through this process before, they will never feel our pain anyways. You need to go through the visa process firsthand in order to fully appreciate how painful it is.

yeah it just started like the last 4-5 months been speculation its the american ambassadors doing to the problems with the elections ..but who knows all speculation ....my husband is up for interview Oct 13th, hoping the best , fearing the worst..someone said its more likely to get ap if spouse in USA Albanian also anyone heard this? Good luck to all here..

I don't know if being a USA Albanian spouse gives you a larger chance of an AP or not. In our case that isn't true because I am a USA citizen (born in USA) and I am not Albanian. After thinking about this for many nights i'm wondering whether its because of my fiance's age (she is 22). Although there is only a 5 year difference between us, i'm wondering whether they are giving younger people (younger than 30) more APs than people that are older. Maybe they have some statistic that shows that younger people are more likely to cheat the system. I still don't know why we are in AP, but if I do find out i'll let you all know.

yasieyasie,

They told my fiance the same exact thing (she interviewed in Albanian embassy). They said everything looks fine, paperwork is all here, interview was good..... no wait for us to call you. The funny thing is, I was corresponding with another Visajourney member in Albania who had his interview a few days before my fiance and they did not give him AP. It looks like some get it and some don't.

You should be happy, at least you have a website to check the status. Albania doesn't have a way to check the status on their website . So we have to write them emails...

Hopefully we will all get out of this AP mess soon.

EAbbas,

One thing that I still don't fully understand is this whole deal with doing security checks during AP. Shouldn't those have been done during the USCIS phase before NOA2. We were waiting for our NOA2 for 7 months, that should have given them plenty of time to run the checks. I just don't understand what they were doing all that time.... this whole AP deal is sooooo unbelievably frustrating...

ap sucks, How long did you wait for them to finish your Administrative Processing?

They checked off "Other". Next to it, they wrote (my rough Albanian Translation) "Administrative Processing. Please go home and wait for us to call you. We will contact you when we are ready to resume the interview. Contacting us will only make the process longer". More or less that's what was written. I contacted my Congressman and he said that actually the 221g is not totally bad, it just means they haven't made a decision yet. He said that the 212a (which is on the same sheet as differant checkboxes) would be much worse because those are definate refusals. So now we are waiting, who knows for how long... I just wish they could give us a timeframe better than (between 2 weeks and a year) so that we can plan our lives accordingly..

Thanks Sergi9

As for the fact that "They do not need "justification" it can even be random"

This is peoples lives that they are "randomly" delaying.

Alla,

I have discussed this at length with my friends. What makes me very upset is that it seems like the people making the decisions have more power than our politicians. How can it be that the people we pick to represent us, Congressmen and Senators, who have the power to make and change laws, do not have any power with it comes to such matters. There should be a chain of command whereby people higher on the chain should be able to override the decisions of their subordinated (just as my boss has the power to override mt decisions at work). There needs to be accountability.

I read somewhere (I cannot recall the source right now), that the preliminary review is done by USCIS and NVC, and that the embassy should only refuse or AP cases which are considered highly suspicious at the time of interview. However, doing some research, it seems like almost every Albanian on VJ has had a difficult time with this Embassy. My fiance said that out of all the people that interviewed with her that day, almost all of them were given a 221g on the spot, only 1 or 2 made it though, and even those were on their 2nd or 3rd interview.

It just doesn't seem fair or justified to me. We do pay taxes afterall. We should expect some level of professionalism.

just my 2 cents.

So I double-checked with my fiancé, and she indeed got a 221g (Blue refusal worksheet) at her interview last week.

The officer checked off "Other". With a description that says something along the lines of: "Administrative Processing, Please go home and wait for a phone call. We will contact you directly when we are ready to resume your interview. Don't call us or else you will delay the process" (roughly translated using my best interpretation of Albania).

My questions is, has anyone here ever gotten an "other" refusal? .... not for missing documents, health, etc.

If so, what was their justification? Did they ever tell you what the refusal was for? How long was the wait? Did you contact any politicians (i.e. Congress, Senate, President) to help? Which helped the most?

Thanks,

Martin and Marsi