AC I -140 @ Chennai

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coolchap

Registered Users (C)
I have been following this forum for a long time and was checking on the AC I-140 threads. I see from almost all the threads that AC I-140 at Chennai is next to impossible.

The Department of State Cable 180792 from Madam Albright states clearly
"the visa office requests that posts which process IV's begin immediately accepting I-140 cases for which the beneficiary has filed an I-824......".

In addition the cable also states that for posts that are unable toa ccept new cases:

" a handful of posts have informed VO that they are unable to take on any additional caseload. We are sympathetic to these concerns and do not wish to place an additional burdern on posts already overwhelmed with work. If approached by an I-140 beneficiary seeking overseas processing, these posts should notify the Visa Office(CA/VO/F/P) immediately of their inability to assume extra cases. We will then designate another post or posts to assume the case"

There seems to be clear(atleast to me) directions for the posts on this issue.
Now my question is what reasons does Chennai give not to accept the cases, if any one had an experience here.
Also I would like to know if they had placed the Cable on top of their application citing these to let them know the directives. Have any one tried to file or filed I-824/AC I-140 route at Chennai in the recent months because from my understanding a new visa issuance officer takes charge of the affairs in October and I have heard some AC I-140 being accepted(ofcourse none on this forum that I can see of). I had decided to use this option and sent in my file in this week. I am told to wait for 2 weeks by Chennai so waiting with fingers crossed. I would appreciate if guys here could comment on the issues or any thing related with Chennai AC I-140.
Thanks
 
The out come in your case will be of interest to the candidates.
Do let the forum know upon hearing from the Consulate.

Raju
 
coolchap,

I did apply AC-140 in July 03 and got refused.But I have contacted or heard of a guy,who got his AC-140 approved at the same time I applied.Chennai Consulate is very restrictive in accepting these type of cases,I believe one should be very lucky.Anyway all the best,update us on your case.
 
coolcap, ac140madras:

Like raju wrote...if your case is accepted this would be a ray of hope coming closer for the Chennai AC I-140 potential folks!
I really hope your case gets accepted as this will be a good sign. Either ways keep us posted!
 
Thanks to all you guys for responding.

AC140madras,
You said that you applied in July 2003 and I had heard that they were very restrictive in fact rejecting outright the cases in that period. But as I said the visa officer changes in October and there has been more acceptances being seen now(atleast from what I heard and read from Ron Gotcher's website). May be you should try to send in again and see how it comes out. By the way did you have the State Cable mentioned/enclosed in your covering letter and shown the directives as I have layed out. The reason I am saying this is not all the officers are aware of the clauses(these cases are Non Discretionary), atleast that is what I heard from my lawyer. In any case I will keep you guys posted and thanks for your wishes. I need them more :-)
 
coolchap,

Thank you for the concern and Mine was refused without processing (My lawyer took care of enclosing 2000 cable notice and other required documents).But then my I-824 got approved quite quicktly in Aug-2003.And right now NVC has already forwarded my I-140s to chennai.So I think it makes no sense to be to re-try AC-140.Definetely I would have tried if 824 was not appproved.And I am glad to hear that good visa officer has been appointed.

Thanks,
 
Hello coolchap

Hello coolchap,

I am in the process of educating myself about AC-140 @ Chennai.
Please keep the thread updated with your case.

regards,
 
Sure I will. Infact I am waiting for some news from their side. I will wait for another 2 weeks and then send an email(As I think 1 month should be good time for updates). I had made some observation on the Delhi consulate postings for April. For the April dates I found these appointments:
MDR2003754006

E3

4/6/2004 00:00:00

MDR2003755010

E3

4/22/2004 09:00:00

MDR2003755011

E3

4/13/2004 09:00:00

MDR2003758015

E3

4/13/2004 09:00:00

MDR2003758015

E3

4/13/2004 09:00:00

MDR2003758015

E3

4/13/2004 09:00:00

MDR2003760031

E3

4/7/2004 09:00:00

MDR2003766008

E3

4/8/2004 09:00:00

MDR2003769008

E3

4/15/2004 09:00:00

MDR2003769008

E3

4/15/2004 09:00:00

MDR2003772005

E1

4/20/2004 09:00:00

MDR2003772005

E1

4/20/2004 09:00:00

MDR2003800012

E3

4/8/2004 09:00:00

I dont know what to read into this. May be the experts can comment. If I am interpreting this I would be inclined to lean that the Chennai consulate has transfered some cases for processing to the Delhi Consulate....hmmm if I were to look at it that way then refering back to the State Dept Cable they must be transferring some cases(mostly aC I-140) to posts which are willing to do it. Just my 2 cents for speculation. If anyone can comment on this I would greatly appreciate.

Cheers,
 
coolchap:

Finding a interview shceduled at another consulate other than the one where the case number prefix (MDR, BMB, NWD) specifies could mean a number of things:
1. The candidate requested a different consulate after case number was assigned. (more likely)
2. The consulate transferred the case to another consulate (rare)
3. Each of the spouses from seperate consulates and case was assigned based on primary candidates consulate and then transferred to derivative candidates consulate (possible if requested)

So there could be a number of possibilities. Normally if you have been noticing consulates accept 2-3 such cases from other consulates on a regular basis. But what you are saying is true that i too havent seen so many cases (6+) from a different consulates entertained in 1 given month.
 
kd,
Thanks for the reply. Usually I observe that they get about 2 or 3 cases and that too varied mix of variety but in this case they have lot of employment based(one category) sent. That leads me to speculate that it is probably transfer of cases due to workload criteria. Again if somebody, whose case has been actually transferred, could corroborate this then this would be great.
Keeping fingers crossed.
 
I was wondering if you guys know how much time the Chennai folks take to reply to emails. When I mailed my application(AC I-140) they told me to wait for 2 weeks. When I contacted them after two weeks the reply I got was "You have to wait till we respond". I was a little taken back by that email so I stopped contacting them. However my lawyer contacted them via email about 4 days back and no reply to his email. Is there something fishy here? The reason I ask is because I see lot of folks contacting the chennai consulate and getting some reply. I am not sure if I should call them and ask.....What are your comments on this situation if any of you had come across this kind of a scenario
 
coolchap:

There is nothing fishy. IF you get a reply from any consulate consider yourself lucky. They respond to urgent emails only. Else phone is the best means of contacting them to get interview information. I can guarantee that 95+% of the emails do not get a response not bcoz they dont want to respond but bcoz they do not have the bandwidth to be replying to emails. I am happy in a sense that they do not reply to all emails coz that way they can focus more on processing cases and get interviews scheduled faster.

My suggestions is to call them in the first week of may!
 
There is nothing fishy. IF you get a reply from any consulate consider yourself lucky. They respond to urgent emails only. Else phone is the best means of contacting them to get interview information. I can guarantee that 95+% of the emails do not get a response not bcoz they dont want to respond but bcoz they do not have the bandwidth to be replying to emails.

>> I don't agree with this.I have received responses from chennai consulate to every mail.But they may take some time to reply based on their work load.
 
I agree with the above post.

My experience with Chennai Consulate has been a good one.
They had responded to each of my mails. The time of response
was ranging from 2 days to 5 days. This was an year ago.

However this is not a static environment and I would expect
the situation change based on their case load, the specific
case and so on.

Raju
 
I agree with Raju and ac140madras. The reason I found this weird was I have never had problems getting a reply from Chennai. For example some of the email communications I had with them are as follows:
First asking whether they accept AC I-140 and in 6 hours I got their reply as
"Sir
You may send in the case here but we cant assure you of the acceptance.
"

Second when I asked them about the status of my application I got a reply in a few hours
"Please check with us after 2 weeks."

Third email was sent after 2 weeks and the reply got in few hours as "You have to wait till we respond"

Finally fourth mail was sent a few days back (after 1 month of they receiving the application) ......No reply at all

.....So the replies were getting a little curt from them(good respone to bad and then no response....)

So that is the reason I thought this was unusual. Oh well nothing much can be done at this point......apart from being a little impatient and writing messages here. ac14madras did they do this kind of messaging to you also before denying the application. Just Curious.

Cheers
 
Oh ..In my case ..before I could realise anything they had sent back my papers to lawyer addresss saying "Work load doesn't permit us to accept such cases"
 
ac140 at chennai

hi coolchap
we have also applied for ac140 to chennai 2 weeks ago
have not yet heard anything from them
if could you could update us about your progress with the consulate and advise us about what steps to take next it would be really appreciated

thanks
 
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