A Wang

anything we can do to help you out?

I agree with Dean that you take a look at purchasing the tickets there. We did that with Claudeth and it saved me about $150. Does Northwest fly out of there, my friend always flys with them because they offer a good price.

Sounds good... of course, being a citizen I would have expected a much cheaper price quote than even online. $750 isn't too bad for a one-way ticket to the US.

I will have her check up on that for sure.

What is the cheapest airline flight from Tashkent, UZ to NYC? It seems that a one-way is going to cost $1100? I can't really tell but it looks like it isn't cheap... or is that simply online pricing?

Apparently it could be cheaper through other methods?

Congrats! My girlfriend just got her visa from tashkent embassy so yeppers!

His paperwork reached the embassy in Ankara in February, his interview was April 25, he was told he was approved pending his security check.

I emailed the embassy and recieved a response today as follows:

Our records indicate that your security check has not been completed yet. According to the response we received from State Department your case is on hold status, which will require more time to process and cannot be predicted how long it would take. Please note that all pending clearances are checked on regular basis. Today we are sending another follow up to the State Department.

Anyone ever heard of this? What is a hold status? Does it mean he is still waiting in line for his check or maybe I am really engaged to a terrorist?

Plz let this be finished soon

actually this is fairly typical... even in a fairly nice country like Uzbekistan my girlfriend took like 4 months to get AP over with. And honestly, it's all about red tape and bureaucracy.

patience is the key.

Something I am curious about. Does anyone in A/R ever hear anything from anyone doing the checks. For example to they ever get a call or visit from anyone looking for information or is everything done in the background with no contact ever to the petitioner?

THat would be very rare. Often the AR process is extremely secretive so you wouldn't know anything about what goes on.

Your comment about Russia being blacklisted was the first I had heard anything about that. Can you tell me more about what you mean?

I am giving them 6 more days on mine then I am going to try to follow up a bit. I am going to call again Tuesday night of next week and check on the statis. If it is still in A/R I am going to start trying to contact my congressman next Wednesday. If it does any good I will let everyone know.

Ironically enough the VJ'r with the closest time line to mine as well as the same regional center and Embassy will have his interview two days after that. I never got jealous over someone with more money than me, a fancier car or a prettier woman, but I am very jealous of that lucky dude.

Russia is on the political outs with American in general particularly since Russia has some connections with Iran especially with the nuclear crisis. I was talking with some of my Russian friends and it seems like that they are conducting more security reviews on everyone coming from there.

Honestly, the same problems are occurring in other FSU countries too. Even Uzbekistan seems to have AP quite a bit on their lists, esp. for visa lottery winners. Honestly, being jealous of someone with quick approval is understandable. But patience is the key.

I found that rushing the whole process is a red flag for the embassy. They seem to like to feel that they are in control.

I don't think that you can prepay a visa. Being on A/P doesn't ensure that you will get your visa approved.

I am just curious how many others find themselves in that big black hole called Administrative Review, how long you have been sitting there and what courses of action you have been taking?

Mine has been there for 6 weeks. I am giving it 4 more and then going to contact my congresman's immigration specialist to see if they can help. I know of no reason for it. It is the second K-1 for both me and my fiancee (not to the same person). I am guessing they are checking to see what happened on her last K-1 which she stayed here for 30 days and returned home well ahead of the 90 day period she was allowed. Other than that we have a clean slate.

My friend, IF YOU HAVE BEEN WAITING AT LEAST 3 months since you mailed in I-129F, CALL your US REP local office and also call both your US Senators offices, and tell them your situation and you need help, they should either have you come to local office and fill out a "Congressional Inquiry" form or mail one to you or have you write a letter and mail or preferrably fax it back in to them. This Congressional will get you an answer within 48 hours and get USCIS off their ### and moving. Sorry to say it but sadly the only way to speed up this process and get what you want is to demand and complain to politicians, believe me it works. I know from experience, I found out hard way, I believed that if I followed rules and did what instructions said everything would go fast and well, and I have learned from reading what others have done on here, if you notice there are some people on here that will apply at same time as you and will be approved within like 3 to 4 months and have k1 interview and visa approved, it is no luck thing or accident, they had some help or contacted those politician offices within 2 to 3 months of applying to move and speed up the process. I know it is not right and a person should not have to do it, but hopefully by now you will have learned this by reading other posts, if not call them now. Also a potential problem with Russia women is fact of where they come from, things are still icy cold with their government and ours behind the scenes more so than we know. Thus it slows down the visa process.

ZQT3344

Sorry but I wouldn't be all that optimistic about the political process being that smooth especially now that Russia is being blacklisted by our government.

Honestly, immigration is becoming tougher and tougher. And sadly enough, AP will become a longer and longer process....

I don't think that you can appeal this however. The decision on security clearance tends to be final and binding.

alright, updates from me, they told me that It is now going through Administrative processing , I asked them that last time I was told it's under administrative review. she replied:" it is the same thing" ......... she said it's out our nvc's control and she doesn't even know which agency is involved in this. 55555555555555555 damn

Thanks for explaining it to me. I was mostly just curious since so far it does not apply to me. I do apprecaite the information.

Strangely enough I am disliking administrative processing due to the lack of transparency. It's one of the few things I find a lot more mysterious than say the 1040A!

Hopefully the 2.25 months will be over soon and the DV visa will be issued. But it's a matter of time

Actually only the I-134 form is required for DV applicants who cannot provides the savings. It's rather unusual because it is an immigrant visa application with some rather taken criteria from the non-immigrant visa stuff. They don't even need a I-864 form for the DV application.

I would have loved to figure out the DV process as the person in interest is undergoing her administrative processing (3 months less 3 weeks) so basically it's hard to figure things out....

A Wang,

Sponsorship for K visas is quite flexible, as it is for all of the non-immigrant visas. It's the immigrant visas that have the strict requirements, embodied in I-864.

The possibility of marriage fraud is not the issue here. The issue is will the visa applicant become a public charge once they enter the USA.

Again, I don't know whether or not a sponsor is required for the DIV program. My guess would be not.

Yodrak

Thanks for your prompt reply, I guess that I shouldn't be too surprised that K sponsorship tends to be more rigid to prevent cases of marriage fraud which don't exist through the DV program.

A Wang,

I'm not intimately familiar with the Diversity Immigrant Visa Lottery program, but I don't find any mention of sponsorship in the instructions on the DoS web site.

Being an immigrant visa program, and the instructions do say that applicants must meet all of the INA requirements for an immigrant visa (or for adjustment of status, if appropriate), then I guess that the I-864 affidavit of support would apply.

So yes the DIVL is different from the non-immigrant K visas, one way or the other, with respect to sponsorship .

Yodrak

I guess that for the K process, those embassies would care whereas the Diversity visa lottery process, it would be different?

Thanks for your prompt reply, I guess that I shouldn't be too surprised that K sponsorship tends to be more rigid to prevent cases of marriage fraud which don't exist through the DV program.

Thanks guys, mine is still in the US. I will see what I can do.

A Wang, What is a 222-F? I know from first hand experience what a 221-G is but have not heard of a 222-F. I am guessing it is a denial and it leaves you up the creek without a paddle but that is just a guess.

222F is a provision under the Immigration Act that does not allow a person who isn't the applicant him/herself to inquire into the status of an pending case due to privacy issues. In fact, this is invoked if a person such as a sponsor tried to ask about the status of administrative processing via e-mail, etc.

NY Girl, an administrative review as near as I can tell is when something signals them that they need to look at an application closer. It may be the name is the same as someone who has created a problem or something to do with a prior problem such as wanting to check on a previous visa. I don't think anyone knows all the answers. It seems like it can come at any stage, whenever they find somethng that they think might be a red flag. Mine & Bins came at NVC. Omoba's came after the interview.

After you get your NOA-2 the regional center sends it to NVC. There it is assigned a case number based on the Embassy you will be using and the date it was processed. They then forward all the files for each embassy directly to the Embassy. The Embassy then of course arranges the interviews.

Sorry but after consulting with a few immigration lawyers, I found that the congressman can't influence the administrative processing much at all since it's an out of country issue. Pretty much the consulate has the final say and they seem to take however long they want to with AP process.

Sadly enough, there's no real way that you can speed up AP process especially with CP (AOS is different but I think that it can be more influenced). Found that out the hard way.

Is that also true is the application has never left the country. I can see if the ap is at the foreign embassy but in my case and Bins case we were early in the procedure and ours went from the regional center where it was approved to NVC where they put it in A/R and sent it to Washington? Just curious if you have any thoughts.

That is correct. If your A/P moves to the NVC within the States, then the congressman approach may help although this isn't too surefire. The toughest thing is trying to track down where the application is. For example, the diversity lottery case I'm working with is at the embassy itself so no US legal method can be useful here. It's a wait and see. However, if it got sent to Washington then it would be a better shot.

Of course, the worst thing is when you call up and get a 222(F) which is bad! They can be rather private on a ton of things!

I guess that for the K process, those embassies would care whereas the Diversity visa lottery process, it would be different?

Sorry but after consulting with a few immigration lawyers, I found that the congressman can't influence the administrative processing much at all since it's an out of country issue. Pretty much the consulate has the final say and they seem to take however long they want to with AP process.

Sadly enough, there's no real way that you can speed up AP process especially with CP (AOS is different but I think that it can be more influenced). Found that out the hard way.

I was wondering whether the embassy cares about who the I-134 sponsor is for a K-1 or diversity visa applicant. I got into some argument with a friend that if a "complete stranger" does fill out the I-134 form for an applicant then that would be a red flag. However, I did mention that non-profits do fill out I-134 forms for applicants and there doesn't have to be an explicit relationship between the I-134 sponsor and the applicant directly.

I wonder what the embassy's take is on this?

Good luck, man... I'm sort of in a similar position and it's frustrating to have to deal with this...

My girlfriend in Tashkent was informed that it would take 3 months!!! I can't wait til the summer is over soon

Congrats... enjoy a fabulous time then!

Good of luck!

That should be sufficient dependent on your income. If you are 125 percent above poverty level, then you're totally set.

--BUMP--

If you saw it said approved then I can't understand either. Hopefully by bumping this up maybe someone will see this and have an answer for you...

I think that they would be running the AP on it right now. Sometimes they seem to pre-approve stuff but they run it through the security checks afterwards...

Oh man I bet you guys are absolutely excited! I know I would be. Heck, I'm excited for you guys!

Goodluck, and don't worry too much!

Good luck... I'm just waiting for the AP/AR to finish up for my girlfriend...