Cable clearance sent from DOS to Consulate - What next?

Oh and the dates were:

Interview: March 14, 2005
FP returned by FBI: March 18, 2005
FP sent to the Embassy from the National Visa Center: March 21, 2005
Visa Approval: May 27, 2005
 
Thanks MNINJ.

mxasim, whats your time line? When did you have your interview? when did you get your first security clearance?

Although no information has been really uselful so far, but it helps in building some anticipation. Appreciate your help.

Ali
 
mdali77 said:
The sad thing is there is no coordination b/w the various agencies involved. If INS had approved a H1 petition without any problems, then why is DOS taking so long??

I also think that these unreasonable delays are a part of plan to discourage people from applying. And those that have applied are being tested to the limit of their patience, so that they give up and withdraw their applications.

-Ali

anyone has any idea how long these clearances in Administrative processing are taking on average in Islamabad embassy?
My fiance had his interview in october 04... it has been 8 months and still when i called DOS today, they say its pending for security clearance since he has a very common name... and ofcourse they can't give a timeframe (isn't that just beautiful)
will be glad if some one can give a range on average....

Thanks,

Sanna
 
Most of the people I know who got it recently were in 4-6 months range. Its been 6 months for me. When you call DOS try to find out if there was any information flow from the embassy. Its not much use but shows progress, and also if the first clearance came through then he's probably close.

Ali
 
Sanna,

There is no way to tell the avg. delay for admin processing at Islamabad Consulate, I am personally waiting for over 8 months and just like your fiance, I am given similar reason for the delay i.e very common name.

Most ppl on this forum are getting their visas within 6 max. However certain cases had to wait for longer than that like 9-18 months.

So, while chances of getting the visa are pretty good, there is no way to know when.

-Ali
 
mdali77 said:
Sanna,

There is no way to tell the avg. delay for admin processing at Islamabad Consulate, I am personally waiting for over 8 months and just like your fiance, I am given similar reason for the delay i.e very common name.

Most ppl on this forum are getting their visas within 6 max. However certain cases had to wait for longer than that like 9-18 months.

So, while chances of getting the visa are pretty good, there is no way to know when.

-Ali

Thanks for both Ali's for the reply :)
Actually all i knwo so far is that his interview was in october 2004 where he was finger printed and told to have a name check... his fingerprints were cleared in november, and i emailed FBI for name check and that was cleared in december 04... after that no one tells me what other clearance needs to be done...
in december when i called embassy they said his clearances are back and we will eb sending him a letter to come in... but when we didnt get anything for 2 weeks, i called again and they told me that there are soem additional clearances they need to get done because my fiance has a very common name...
since then thats what i am told everytime i contact embassy or DCS. embassy persons are really nice when i call, but every time my fiance calls he never got any answer in a good way...
so now i call DCS every weeks and embassy every 2 weeks, but last time i spoke to DCS they guy told me that he doesnt see any update on this case for a while and that they are still waiting for clearances to come back... :(

Thanks everyone...

Sanna
 
contact at dos

when you guys talk to the department of state, who do you talk to in there? what are the options you choose on the phone and how do we describe our visa issue to the officer? any help is appreciated. i attended the chennai consulate around 4 months ago with 212(g) and i keep getting 'your clearance has not come yet' message from the consulate.

thanks
 
Sanna,

I was interviewd in Sep 2004 and then called again for fingerprinting in Nov 2004. According to FBI, my fingerprints were processed and sent back within a week.

Last month when I called the Islamabad Consulate, I was informed that the admin processing in my case was in final stages and will most likely be completed within a week. When called, a week after that, I was told that, while my clearance was sent to the consulate, the consulate needs to conduct its own internal investigation and that this will again take additional time.

Since then everytime I call them I get the same response that its under processing and that they don't have a timeframe. My experience with calls at consulate are mixed, sometimes they are really nice, but at other times seem really rude and pissed.

I got my employer to talk to DOS last week, and they were told the same thing that my case is pending, although there was some activity in May.

Jinns,

after dialing-in the number to dept of state, a long message is played (2-3 mins, i sometimes get stuck in an endless loop when trying to skip it), after which when prompted, press 1 and then in the next menu press 0, you will be connected to a live representative there. Tell them the releveant details and they will be able to tell the status of your case and any activity.

Hope this helps,

-Ali
 
So how's it going everyone? Any new updates for anyone....

The latest word I have from the embassy is it should be any day now...lets see how long i have to play this anyday game now....

The stupidity of this process sucks beyond comprehension!!!
 
akahmed said:
So how's it going everyone? Any new updates for anyone....

The latest word I have from the embassy is it should be any day now...lets see how long i have to play this anyday game now....

The stupidity of this process sucks beyond comprehension!!!
exactly that's what the embassy informed me today. hopefully we will all see end to this endless delay !
 
DOS contact

hi all
There is this one lady @ DOS..she sounds hispanic by origin..I hate it when she picks up the phone. She is not at all helpful and ofcourse not at all encouraging. There is another guy who is totally different and is very helpful.
Did any of you feel this way?
:confused: jay
 
I've generally noticed women are more helpful @DOS. Got this lady once, she sounded middle aged from her voice. She was the most helpful. Told me the complete history of communication between the embassy and DOS. Thats all they have really, when they received request from the embassy and when they sent it back.

The American embassy staff seems to be more courteous these days, but the same bloody response, we're hopeful it will be soon....

I also contacted the Pakistani embassy in Washington, being an expat Pakistani living in American they should help me in this matter. They said they will look into it, but I seriously doubt if they would be able to.

Ali
 
akahmed said:
I've generally noticed women are more helpful @DOS. Got this lady once, she sounded middle aged from her voice. She was the most helpful. Told me the complete history of communication between the embassy and DOS. Thats all they have really, when they received request from the embassy and when they sent it back.

The American embassy staff seems to be more courteous these days, but the same bloody response, we're hopeful it will be soon....

I also contacted the Pakistani embassy in Washington, being an expat Pakistani living in American they should help me in this matter. They said they will look into it, but I seriously doubt if they would be able to.

Ali

last week when my fiance called the embassy, they said they got the response from Washington and they will be writing him a letter soon. Day before taht i had called DOS and they said you should contact embassy we can't provide any info....
so 2 days after my fiance called i emailed embassy and i got this reply:
We have received the response and will be contacting applicant soon. This week when my fiance called embassy a guy said, ohh it is still processing...

anyone knows what this means? we keep getting our hopes up and then they get thrown all the way to the bottom again.........

Sanna
 
Hello all,
I just discovered this forum and thought I should post on this site as well...

I had an interview at the US consulate in Dubai on May 16th,2005. The officer stated that I should get the clearance within a week..its now been nearly 30 days and nothing so far. I usually call the consulate twice a week and they dont seem to have any info. My visa was for an H1B, and I was on F1/OPT before I took my vacation to Dubai. I am not in a technology related field so I wonder why it is still taking so long...

Also, if any of you have had a finger print check, can you tell me wehther the consulate took scans of all ten fingers? or just the left and right hand index finger...the reason I ask is because during my interview I was asked to digitally scan my left and right index finger, which I thought would be for an FBI fingerprint check...but I called the FBI FP office and they said they havent received anything from DOS with regards to my case?

Any input would be helpful...
 
Sanna, I got my first clearance at the end of March and had a similar reponse from DOS, that my clearance has come through and the embassy will be contacting me. What I gather, they send for a second clearance for some people. But DOS will tell you if there was a followup information request from the embassy. Otherwise the delay is in local processing. I've also heard in some casses they send for local clearance.

dubaiguy, at the time of my interview they took fingerprints of just the index fingers. Keep following up with FBI and DOS.

Ali
 
Waiting for Adminstrative Processing!!!!

Dear Friends,

I am waiting for administrative processing of my visitor visa B1/B2 application for 2.5 months. The officer at Islamabad Embassy told me that he needs to send the case for security clearance to states and that he will contact my when it is processed. I have not heard from them till now. My interview was on 24 March 2005, which went smoothly and hardly for 3 minutes.

Please help me and tell how can I expedite my visa. You can add me in MSN. My address is longshort@hotmail.com

My UK visa is expiring on 14 August 2005 and I need to make a single holiday trip to both destinations.

Regards,

Bonapart
 
I haven't been able to find a way to expedite. You can only try to find out status, from FBI name check, DOS and the embassy. Even then you don't get much idea about how long it would take. Since your visa category is different from most here, you may have better luck.

Ali
 
Hi all, thought I should update:
I just spoke with DOS, and luckily got a lady who was real helpful. She told me that 5 different law enforcement agencies were contacted, one of them being the FBI, and four others which she could not identify since they were just numbers listed on the screen. Said it would take anywhere from 4 weeks to 9 months...yikes!
Lets hope it does not take that long!!
 
Called DOS just now

Just called DOS and spoke to a very helpful lady. Without me asking her, she said first clearance was done on 18 April 2005 and second on 5 May 2005. My interview occured on 24 March 2005. She also said Embassy should be contacting you soon. I hope the do.

Bonapart
 
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