Hurdles in CP interview - "Administrative Processing"
I'd like to bring attention of certain nationals on the hurdles you may get when going for consular processing interview. Regardless your current citizenship (Canadian or else), if you are born in certain countries (especially China, Russia, Israel...), the visa officer in the consulate has the discretion to conduct additional "Administrative Processing", and this usually includes "Visa Mantis" security screening and FBI name check.
This could occur especially your birth country is different than your citizenship country, since the security check done by NVC is based on your citizenship country, while the visa officer most likely focuses on your birth one.
When this happens, you will not be granted visa until the screening is completed w/o issues, and usually this takes 20 days if your name is not triggered in their database, and it could take 4-6 months if you have a common name with a lot of your compatriots.....
So make sure you have valid visa (to return back to US) before leaving for CP interview. And don't be surprised when this happens...
Good luck to all,
-hs