Hello!
I am about to describe the reasons that sent us to AP for a little while, with the hopes that this story could help or ease minds of other members of this forum.
2017EU***
DS-260 submitted on May 22nd 2016
2NL received September 20th 2016
Embassy appointment November 7th 2016 ---- results: AP under section 221(g)
Additional papers sent to Embassy on November 30th 2016
e-mail from embassy requesting for our passports December 20th 2016
visas issued on January 13th 2017
POE NY, JFK January 27th 2017
ok, after the bullet points let me explain. We are a family of 4, me, the primary applicant, my husband and our 2 children from my ex-husband; boy 19y, girl 15y. My main concern for jeopardizing the visa, was my husband’s old conviction of issuance of some bad checks with insufficient funds, although he was not responsible for them, but he still got convicted. His conviction was 7 months suspended sentence. Serious convictions are mostly considered sentences of 12 months and over.
We went to the Embassy on the 7th November 2016 fully prepared with 99% confidence that we will be found eligible right and there. I had all the paperwork prepared with copies as per instructions. At first, we were called to a very small office (like a window counter with a door) and there was a local employee of the embassy going over our papers and putting them in their wished order. She asked very basic questions, mainly about the papers, she was friendly enough.
After half an hour we have been called to a window, where an American Consular Officer took fingerprints from all of us.
Then, in about another half an hour we have been called again to a window. There the CO asked us some basic questions, where I went to school, where I studied, same for my husband, also for our son who was already a student at the time in the US with F1 Visa, and also our daughter who is 15, he even asked her a couple of questions like what she wishes to study and stuff. I am assuming he wanted to check the overall level of our family, English speaking and behavior. In our DS-260 application we had mentioned the conviction of my husband about the check. We didn’t hand out any court decisions to them but we had them with us. This conviction did not appear in any of my husband’s police records etc, so we thought they may not ask about it. However, the CO saw it on the DS-260 application and asked my husband about it: what exactly happened with that bad check? My husband told him the story in short, and the CO requested court papers regarding this conviction. My husband took them from his briefcase and handed them over to the CO. They were in our native language, as instructions said that all paperwork can be either in English or the native language of the country the Embassy is in. However, the CO asked that these papers will officially translated and given to them. At that point I knew that we would not walk out of the Embassy with the visas in our hands. We waited in the waiting room a bit longer and then the CO called for us again at the window and handed over the refusal paper with 3 items under section 221(g) which were:
1. The telephone number of the person we have as a contact in the US, oh as simple as this sounds, yes, we all enter a contact person in US with an address in our DS-260 application and they asked for this person’s phone number. Although this person is my cousin living in US, I didn’t know her phone number by heart, and I didn’t have my cell phone with me to look it up since the security of the embassy keeps them at the entrance!
2. The court paperwork and decision of my husband’s conviction officially translated in English and
3. The certified consent of my ex-husband, father of my daughter, regarding the immigration of our 15 y old daughter, since she is a minor. This we didn’t see coming!
I asked the CO, if we deliver those 3 items we will get the visas? And he replied yes.
On the 30th November we sent the conviction court papers officially translated in English, along with a couple of acquittal decisions of my husband for the same crime, the certified consent for our daughter from my ex and the phone number of my cousin.
After 20 agonizing days I received the e-mail from the Embassy requesting our passports to proceed with our case. I knew it then that we got the visas!
I want to thank immigration.com/forum and especially BritSimon, Sm1smom and SusieQQQ for their accurate contribution to this long and agonizing procedure of hundreds thousands of people of being selected to being found eligible for a diversity visa.
I hope to all members of this forum to experience this procedure as calmly as possible and if they are truly eligible on all counts to get the visa and not to be rejected for silly reasons.
Again, thank you immigration.com/forum for your valuable and accurate information.
Sincerely,
Kelly
