yikes

Ok, thank you for your replies!

Very common name(s) - first, middle and last.

Hope so - we started this process in March 2017 and after listening to nearly everyone being told they had been approved and to expect the visa in 7-10 days, we were a bit surprised by this one ... and perplexed they couldn't shed any light on where this flag came from.

My Australian husband and I were at the Sydney consulate for his GC interview and we were told he had a visa denied in 1996 - which is news to him! And when we tried to query this and explain that nothing like this came up during a successful GC application in 2001 (and he's held a number of tourist visas also) the interviewer appeared confused. He then immediately informed us the matter would go through administrative processing and sent us on our way.  They've held onto his passport. Any idea what is going on or suggestions as to what we can do to expedite the matter?