jgauthi242

1 hour ago, roshakky said:

My husband’s passport was requested on Sept 15 and was received at the embassy on Sept 20. Few weeks went by with no updates. My husband emailed the embassy 2  wks ago and they responded last week saying they never received his passport. So he emailed back with the tracking and delivery confirmation with signature… well… visa was issued today!!! On our 2 year anniversary!! 
 

point of the story… email them to make sure they are reviewing the documents you send! 

Happy for you!

I emailed the person at the ACLU who wrote the report on CARRP, but I've yet to hear back.

Traveling for work the next several weeks, so won't have much time, but will be working on this as time permits.

4 hours ago, ice-qube said:

I mean, I tend to agree with you yes, but there is a great deal being discussed in this case that could make winning a case, if it actually went to court, more difficult than it would seem. This case affirms that the government could successfully use the COVID excuse, that they could use the fact that there is no statutory or accepted standard of what constitutes "reasonable" timelines, that prioritizing the processing of a case over others  de facto disadvantages those other cases in a system with limited resources, and so on. In my opinion, we would not want this to get to trial given what is discussed in this particular judgment.

But, the COVID excuse makes no sense for AP.

By definition, there can be no AP without an interview, and because there were extremely limited numbers of interviews during COVID, there can be no backlog of AP due to COVID.

How can it be the case that they're not prioritizing other AP over these ones from Montreal? Some people here have been waiting for over a year now. Clearly, they are prioritizing other visas over these, i.e., SQ, DV, E, and F.

3 hours ago, jandeep7519 said:

HUGE CONGRATULATIONS! Very happy for you and your wife. 

 

When did you submit your passport? They requested my husbands passport as well and it was delivered through their courier service on Sept.14, however the consulate is saying they haven't received it yet! We have emailed them with the tracking information to show it was infact delivered but haven't heard back from the consulate. 

 

Not sure if we should wait at this point or hire a lawyer.

We hired Jesse Bless at Bless Litigation (https://blesslitigation.com/). It cost just under $7k (including court fees). You can check his credentials here: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jesse-bless-0a5a0044/

Lawsuit was filed 21 September. Passport was requested today (5 October). Wife joined me on a work trip in Europe and is flying back early to hand deliver the passport to the consulate if they allow it; otherwise, we'll ship it.  I strongly agree with Siarg that the request for passport submission is the last step before approval.

Visa issuance statistics for Montreal also show large numbers of DVs approved in August.

August 2022

45 DV

117 CR1+IR1

July 2022

37 DV

106 CR1+IR1

...

January 2022

1 DV

250 CR1+IR1

Looks like they've also been issuing a lot of E and F visas lately (more than DV). Believe E is work-related and F is student-related. Given that school year just started, I would imagine that F will go down a lot this month and they'll get to your case without having to sue them. (the ONLY reason I say that is because they already requested your passport back)

In terms of what you should do, it's always just an opinion, but I would say: (1) have the US citizen email them on your behalf, (2) tell them you sent the passport back on X using their preferred courier, it was delivered on Y (include screenshot), and tell them to confirm that they've received your passport (even better if you can get signature confirmation from courier), (3) remind them that your police certificate is expiring on Z (i.e., a polite way to tell them to do their *!@#*$# job), and (4) ask them to confirm that they don't need anything else from you.

Assume the worst, which is that they won't issue the visa by the time the police certificate expires and request another one. That way, when they fail to do their job for the Nth time, you already have the new document ready. And, if you don't end up needing it, even better.

Consulate requested passport two weeks after lawsuit filed! "AP is now complete".

Note that my wife had three visas in past seven years, which they had done AP on every time, usually taking around 6 weeks (very close to the 45 days mentioned by others who filed lawsuits).

With regards to DV priority, even though it's third tier, you're right that it's prioritized over immediate relative when it gets close to September 30. We know there's an immediate relative backlog, yet monthly visa issuance statistics for last several months show thousands of DVs being issued.

For those on the fence about whether to file lawsuits, now that September 30 is passed, you may consider waiting a little longer (e.g., end of October) to see if it's necessary. But, I still truly believe the only reason they looked at our case and approved it is because we sued them 10 days ago.

They let 79,000 people in from Afghanistan without proper vetting. They then went back and started vetting everybody. They found several individuals with derogatory information: https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&source=web&rct=j&url=https://www.oig.dhs.gov/sites/default/files/assets/2022-09/OIG-22-64-Sep22-Redacted.pdf&ved=2ahUKEwjWtcnDvcf6AhWXi_0HHeiPD4gQFnoECBYQAQ&usg=AOvVaw1xtpRMrSPVRCPRPZ9OK_5a

They then started processing large numbers of SQ visas, all of which require AP. SQ visas are the highest priority tier (i.e., higher than immediate relative). https://travel.state.gov/content/travel/en/us-visas/visa-information-resources/visas-news-archive/immigrant-visa-prioritization.html

There is a large and growing backlog of cases in AP. You can determine this by looking at these reports: https://travel.state.gov/content/travel/en/us-visas/immigrate/special-immg-visa-afghans-employed-us-gov.html#quarterly

Difference the numbers going into AP and coming out of it (i.e., "undergoes AP" and "visa issuance). Since January 2021, 4800 people have made it to AP stage, but only 2300 visas have been issued.

The reason the only people in AP who get approved are the ones that filed WOM is because they're only processing SQ in AP because there is a large and growing backlog of SQ in AP and they are a higher priority than IR according to State's prioritization system. When you sue them, you're effectively forcing them to work on your case.

14 hours ago, Throwitaway1988 said:

I can see a Canadian outlet maybe picking it up on that angle - there’s really no reason a Canadian citizen should be subject to extreme vetting - the information systems are shared between the US and Canada, everything they need to know they have access to already so what gives?

That's a great idea. Which of you Canadians wants to identify individual reporters then email them on their work email addresses directly or via LinkedIn? That's the best way to get a response. Emailing the general "tip" line has never worked for me. IMO, easiest way to find reporters' names is to find articles published by those outlets and see who the author was. Would probably also be good for somebody to get in touch with the "foreign minister" too.

3 hours ago, Siarg said:

Hey everyone, good news! We FINALLY got our issuance and crossed the border last night to get the visa stamped. I will give a rundown here because VJ doesn't have a category for Diversity Visa on the timeline. I also understand that many people have been waiting longer than us, but please realize that Diversity Visas are only able to be issued until September 30th for each year, after that you are unable to obtain the visa and have to enter the lottery again. We entered for the 2022 DV in 2020, so we have been waiting 2 years for this.

 

Interview: June 9th 2022, Principal applicant was issued, beneficiary (Canadian citizen spouse) was Refused/221g/AP/DS-5535.

 

There was no obvious reason for why the "extreme vetting" was required, as with many people in this forum. No criminal history, no TAL degree or job, no travel history. It is possible there was a name check match as they have a common spanish last name.

 

We realized through this group that DS5535 can take an unlimited amount of time, and even worse: Montreal had a 50-60% AP refusal rate per interview. Yes, that's right, for every DV interview montreal did, there was a 50% chance of being placed on AP. We figured this out from the CEAC data collected for DV by consulate on xarthisius' website. Anecdotally in Montreal DV group chats, every person we spoke to except for 1 had been given the DS535. Many are Canadian citizens.

 

We hired a cheap lawyer (do not reccomend) and filed a Writ of Mandamus in July, thinking it would be a backup if they delayed until September to get us an issuance before the cutoff time. That first case was a mess, was transferred between courts and largely ignored by the government. It literally just showed up in a new district yesterday. Through this whole time we got the standard template emails of "We cant tell you anything just wait" when we tried to contact Montreal. The only variation we received was a recommendation that I activate my visa without my spouse. I don't think they understand how emotionally devastating this process is, and the lack of transparency could make anyone go insane.

 

We had spent the last 4 months heavily researching everything we could about 9FAM, 5535, lawsuits, INA sections etc and had talked to other lawyers about our options. Every lawyer we spoke to in the group chats/forums were quoting us up to 15k USD to do a last-minute lawsuit. I truly believe some of them are preying on people's desperation the closer it gets to the DV deadline. One even quoted us 6k USD, then a week later said "now it is 12k USD".

 

We made the decision to try to find a lawyer that would help us for the original quote of 6k USD. We went on pacermonitor and searched through all of the WoM lawsuits that were filed in DC recently and emailed around 20 with our story, and our budget. We got a few replies, but the fastest to reply was Christopher Casazza from PIC Law. We had a consulatation with him and he agreed to file our Temporary Restraining Order/Writ of Mandamus for us. Please be aware that a TRO is not always applicable, but in our unique circumstance, it was. We had all of our correct documents, one of us was approved, the candian refused and in AP for 4 months, the only requirements to DV eligibility outside of coutnry is high school graduation. If anyone is looking for a lawyer outside of the standard reccomended lawyers, I would really, really, really strongly reccomend this lawfirm (PIC Law). Many of the other lawyers (Goldstein, Hacking, Nimer, Murthy, Raju) seem to be WoM churn firms. No judgement on that, but having filed with Raju, then filing with Chris Casazza, there is a HUGE difference when you pick an attorney that actually cares about your case. If you're like me, I want to be able to talk about the lawsuit, not just file it and forget. PIC Law is a genuine immigration lawfirm and not a WoM churn farm trawling forums for desperate people.

 

Long story short, we filed the lawsuit, and a week later we had the visa approved. The "CLEARANCE RECEIVED" date is September 20th, CEAC updated to issued on September 21st, and on the physical visa it was printed on September 22nd. DOS contacted Montreal and then asked us to dismiss the lawsuit because it was issued. These lawsuits really seem to be what everyone thinks, the case is just sitting there and the lawsuit prioritzes your clearance. 

Once we received the passport in the mail, we went straight to Niagara and crossed to stamp the visa. After 4 months of fried nerves, it is finally over and we can't believe it. Looking at the Montreal issuance rates, with 1 day left (because they're taking a vacation on Sept 30th), it really seems to me that this lawsuit was 100% responsible for us getting our visa approved in time. There are 149 DV Cases issued (249 visas) and 27 cases on 221G/5535 (49 visas). It is very possible that 49 people lose their chance of getting a green card because of Montreal's high 5535 rate. They sped up towards the end of the year, but wow. It is horrific what they are doing, and apparently mostly to Canadian citizens.

 

Once more, I can't thank Christopher Casazza enough. I can't post a link here, but Chris, Alex Isbel (two name partners) and Caitlin Costello all helped with our visa at the lawfirm PIC Law (Philadelphia Immigration Lawyers).

Damn, that's a wild story. And CONGRATULATIONS!

What you said about DVs is really interesting and also backs up my research. My personal opinion is that we won't see any movement until September 30 on any of these cases because they're trying to finish DV (also from years prior). And, it's a big IF that any movement will occur after September 30 passes because of the next problem, which is the huge backlog of people in the Special Immigrant Visa (SIV) category, which are people from Afghanistan and Iraq that assisted the US government.

Basically, according to Department of State priority tiers, SIV is highest priority, followed by Immediate Relative (IR). But, they have been prioritizing DV over IR recently (started in roughly June of this year) in order to meet the mentioned September 30 deadline.

If we look at the last person who went through DS-5535 that got approved in the spreadsheet, it looks like it was December-ish last year, which was coincidentally a few months after we left Afghanistan. They may have realized by then they had no way to get through the SIV backlog (it's still growing from what I can tell in the publicly available SIV reports) and then basically told the people who work on these cases at the different government agencies (FBI is the main one) not to process any AP case unless if it was for an SIV visa.

Unless you sue their sorry asses.

To explain further, you can end up in AP, but get out quickly. I think the reason some people get stuck in AP forever is because when the FBI runs the "name check", if your name is similar to somebody in their database, they basically throw your application in a stack that they won't look at for a very long time. I found one person at Frankfurt consulate who went into AP on July 15 and got out at the end of August. They were also asked for travel history (DS-5535). But, they originated from India and those names tend to be more unique than other countries (i.e., the name check didn't return any names that were similar).

On 9/26/2022 at 8:58 AM, emergence said:

How long does it typically take to get a response from the consulate? We emailed them on the 14th to confirm they have received my fiancé’s medical (one of the reasons we received the 221(g)), but we still haven’t heard back from them. Telus hasn’t been able to reach them either. It’s likely that this isn’t the only reason we received DS-5535, but it would be really nice to get it cleared up!

More often than not, the consulate will not respond stating they received your documents. In our experience, the consulate never responds to my wife (who the visa is for). The only time they respond is when I email them.

Therefore, I would recommend that you wait two weeks, then have the US citizen reach out and ask them to confirm that they have everything they need, and to confirm that they do not need anything else.

If you received any automatic responses, make sure you read the email in its entirety to check for verbiage relating to them deleting your email. Some consulates use a strange Google Form thing you need to fill out prior to sending them an email (otherwise they just delete your email and you get an automated response).

12 minutes ago, DGF said:

I haven't filed one myself, no. But I do work with FOIA request results as part of my job and they can be very large. If you request it digitally it'll be cheaper because you don't pay for copies. One I recently looked at was over 1000 pages, so you can see why that would get expensive quickly. The first 100 pages and 2 hours of searching are free apparently and there is also a fee waiver available but you need to prove that it's in the public interest. 

 

Source: experience and https://first.uscis.gov/content/pdf/USCIS_FOIA_Request_Guide.pdf

Thank you for your detailed response!

Can you provide successful examples of proving it's in the public interest? The FOIA I filed was basically an inquiry with regards to AP processing times, per category, per post, by month, etc.

On 9/17/2022 at 8:59 PM, DGF said:

FOIA is expensive but can be requested online and is pretty interesting to go through. They do redact them though so I wouldn't expect that the reason for the DS-5535 would definitely be available through a FOIA request. 

Do you say they're expensive because you've filed one?

My understanding was they told you what the fee would be at the end of the process. I think many of them are processed with no fee.

You are correct that some information would be redacted, but it would be very interesting nonetheless to see all the job titles, foreign state of chargeability, etc.

This information could be used as the basis of a class-action lawsuit.

At the very least, getting such information and showing that they're basically wasting their time looking at people who don't need to be looked at would be useful. Take my wife's case. She's had AP done on her three times in less than seven years and nothing material has changed. Same company, same projects. Hasn't traveled to any of those "bad countries" since after the first time it was done.

I don't deny that AP serves a reason, but the logical thing to do when you have limited resources is focus them towards those attempting to do harm, not 6 month old babies and people in the STEM field. The simple fact that the vast majority of the people they process they let through proves that they're looking at the wrong people.

58 minutes ago, ClemsonC said:

They didn’t keep the passport in the first place? 

Why would you need a resume for an ir1?

I guess I’ll be printing mine off…

It doesn't matter if you print the resume off.

If you work in a field on the Technology Alert List (TAL), they will send you to AP (as well as for other reasons, and sometimes for no reason at all).

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Technology_Alert_List

If you happen to work in one of those fields (or something that could be construed as being in one of those fields), I highly suggest you bring a layman's explanation of what it is you do.

1 hour ago, Marbles_ said:

That's a good idea about the FOIA, I don't know much about filing a FOIA request but as long as it didn't cost too much I would do it. With this specific group of us Canadians and the fact Montreal gives it out more than any other consulate, it seems to be entirely random! 

 

It's free, but don't expect a response any time soon (if ever). It's "national security".

1 hour ago, Marbles_ said:

No one knows and the consulate will never tell you. We're all left guessing, some people say it's because of where you have travelled or you work in STEM or you have a similar name to a known criminal. But most of us in this group, none of these apply to us and it's just bad luck. I believe it's just a random computer selection to slow down immigration for absolutely no reason, because like others in this group, we are allowed to travel as tourists to the US and we have NEXUS (which means the US border services have already verified we are not criminals or any sort of threat) so it's essentially just bureaucratic bs.

I talked to an attorney that said if you file an FOIA request, you can eventually figure out why they gave you DS-5535 and get the information they compiled.

I think once everybody's visa is cleared, they should file an FOIA request, so that we can compile this information.

The attorney did say in some cases it is entirely random.

This is the message my Congresswoman sent me today after I sent her a detailed 1,550 word email asking for help:

If it wasn't so bad/sad, it'd be funny...

On 8/12/2022 at 5:04 PM, roshakky said:

Do you have specific email addresses and addresses you contacted? I am unable to find this information 

https://www.state.gov/telephone-directory/

Check `Key Officers` and `Organizational Directory`.

According to Foreign Affairs Manual (FAM), the processing is overseen by Bureau of Consular Affairs. Within Bureau of Consular Affairs, it's Deputy Assistant Secretary for Visa Services (CA/VO) and Office of Screening, Analysis, and Coordination (CA/VO/SAC). https://fam.state.gov/search/viewer?format=html&query=security+advisory+opinion&links=SECUR,ADVISORI,OPINION&url=/FAM/01FAM/01FAM0250.html#M254_2

Contacting them is of no use. They will feign ignorance, interrogate you about where you found their number, and be extremely unfriendly. They have no interest in helping you or doing their job effectively.

53 minutes ago, emergence said:

Thanks for the information. We did indeed receive the DS-5535 today. 
 

After doing some research, I am absolutely appalled to see the DS-5535 is being used this way and with this frequency, particularly because there was a 2021 proclamation from the White House specifically mentioning that its use and efficacy should be reevaluated. 
 

Is there any information available on what percentage of cases are being hit with this? Is there a source on Montreal’s infamy? How much more often is it issuing DS-5535s in comparison to other consulates?

 

This seems like an absolutely gross misuse of a process that was designed to vet those who could present real national security issues, not infants.

 

Has anyone gotten in touch with a journalist who might be interested in taking on a story about this issue? 

I'm in touch with an immigration reporter at Bloomberg. They won't be able to get started on writing a story for a while though.

Through the extensive amount of research I'm done, my hypothesis is that the reason it's taking much longer than usual are because of the very large number of Special Immigrant Visas (SIV) being issued under categories SQ-1, SQ-2, and SQ-3, which are Afghan civilians that helped the US government, their spouses, and children. There was also quite a backlog of Diversity Visas (DV), which they'll be past by September 30 (when the visas become no longer valid because they have to be issued by then). The vast majority of visas under these categories end up in administrative processing, and based upon publicly available reports, the backlog is growing, not shrinking.

My wife has been in AP since May 2022 (also TAL). We'll be suing the government roundabout the end of the month.

13 minutes ago, Family said:

Thank you for updating. Are they still holding on to her passport?

They held onto her passport, but she retrieved it from the consulate a few weeks ago.

Figured I'd provide another update since it's now been 4 months. No useful updates from consulate, just that processing is ongoing and that they don't need anything else.

It's not clear if any cases that aren't trivial (in their opinion) that aren't in the SQ-1, SQ-2, SQ-3, and DV categories are actually being worked on right now. Just to reiterate, my wife has cleared administrative processing three times in the last six years and nothing material has changed since then (became a supervisor at work, working on slightly different project, but in same domain).

Case was getting updated once a week or so up until August 8, then it stopped getting updated. The only time it gets updated is when I email them asking what the current status is, which they always respond with no useful information to.

Figured I'd provide an update since it's been a month. Wife is still stuck in administrative processing. Consulate replied to Senator with boilerplate email indicating they could provide no estimate as to when it would be finished (i.e., it could last forever).

@CalistaR has your visa been approved yet? My wife and I are still waiting, since May 9 when she got put into administrative processing.

6 hours ago, CalistaR said:

Thanks for commenting! Have you and your wife tried to email the Frankfurt consulate recently for an update? Do you know the case last updated date on the status tracker?

 

Our status was updated daily each business day until July 26th. Hasn't been updated the last few days since then.

We check CEAC every day. Our last updated date typically gets updated two or three times a week. Ours also says July 26. Our lawyer says it doesn't really mean anything.

We also emailed them over two weeks ago and they've yet to respond.

Senator is reaching out on Monday since it's now been 75ish days. You can have your Senator reach out once it's past 60 days. We waited until now because we emailed them at the 60 day mark.

FWIW, consular officer said they would try to finish the processing within 30 days at the interview.

FYI, my wife is stuck in the same situation. Consular officer asked for CV and list of countries traveled to along with dates for last ten years. We submitted the documentation May 12, still haven't heard anything back. Hope you have better luck than us! Please keep us updated as to when you get approved.

Thank you for your response.

VISA Navigator seems to be something that is specific to the Frankfurt consulate. It's very difficult to even find a link to it on their website. None of the emails or papers they send out mention it either and somebody else on this forum who went through administrative processing earlier this year did not have to use it. But, now if you send an email without using this tool, they say they'll delete your email without reply (that doesn't answer the question of whether they actually got your documentation though).

My wife sent an inquiry nearly two weeks ago asking them to confirm they've received the requested documents and they haven't even responded to that.

Status still shows as Refused on CEAC website.

We're escalating to Senator with the help of our lawyer on Monday. If we don't hear back, we'll file a Writ of Mandamus.