Got a call from Passport Office for Visitor Visa Verification

A

Asif2000

Registered Users (C)
My wife and I are U.S citizens. My wife's brother applied for Visit visa back home (in Pakistan) last year and hasn't received his passport back yet. He has visited here couple times before. He has listed my wife as a point of contact on the application form.

We got a call from Dallas Passport Office about verifying his biographic information with my wife to be able to adjudicate the process. The officer wants to meet with my wife in the Passport Office.

We have had relatives visit us in the past but has never had anyone call to verify. Is this a normal process now? Has anyone heard about it? Should we be cautious going in?

Thanks!
 
Asif2000 said:
My wife and I are U.S citizens. My wife's brother applied for Visit visa back home (in Pakistan) last year and hasn't received his passport back yet. He has visited here couple times before. He has listed my wife as a point of contact on the application form.

We got a call from Dallas Passport Office about verifying his biographic information with my wife to be able to adjudicate the process. The officer wants to meet with my wife in the Passport Office.

We have had relatives visit us in the past but has never had anyone call to verify. Is this a normal process now? Has anyone heard about it? Should we be cautious going in?

Thanks!
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It is not weird or abnormal, US govt wants to make sure the gentleman isn't a terrorist or associated with nefarious characters. Of course, it might be frustrating to you, but just be prepared to respond to the questions from the passport officials, plus security officers at the Dalls Office. To be frank, his visa is sorely dependent on the responses you and your wife give to the officers there. I know you are from Pakistan and don't want to be associated with terrorism, but US govt view most young men from the with suspicion. I know this from own experience, I have a friend from Pakistan who owns a business here in the Washington, DC, he rarely travels to Pakistan because he tells me that each time he goes home, upon return, he's subject to interviews with CBP. So, he found a solution, travel to Pakistan every 3-4 years, to avoid be screwed.
 
Al Southner said:
It is not weird or abnormal, US govt wants to make sure the gentleman isn't a terrorist or associated with nefarious characters. Of course, it might be frustrating to you, but just be prepared to respond to the questions from the passport officials, plus security officers at the Dalls Office. To be frank, his visa is sorely dependent on the responses you and your wife give to the officers there. I know you are from Pakistan and don't want to be associated with terrorism, but US govt view most young men from the with suspicion. I know this from own experience, I have a friend from Pakistan who owns a business here in the Washington, DC, he rarely travels to Pakistan because he tells me that each time he goes home, upon return, he's subject to interviews with CBP. So, he found a solution, travel to Pakistan every 3-4 years, to avoid be screwed.
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This pretty much sums it up. We went to see the officer and felt like we were the ones being interrogated. The questioning was more about us in the U.S then the BIL applying for visa. The only question about BIL was them showing us the picture of him to verify that it was him. The guy has visited here twice for cryin out loud and never overstayed his visa.

I have been in the U.S more than 18 years and wify has been here almost 15 years. We have been U.S Citizens since '07. Have never had trouble with the law and have been law abiding tax paying citizens with a very highly-paid job, therefore contributing to the economy in a positive way. Most of the questions were not related at all.

They found a dozen or so people using my wife's name in their visa application as a point of contact, most of which we didn't recognize. My wife has a common name and the funny thing is that all of those visitors visa applicants having my wife's name as a contact had phone numbers for the contact that we have never had and addresses (in different states) that we have never lived at. How naive is that for them to assume that this must be my wife on their applications? I told them to do a quick yahoo people search and they would probably find dozens of people with same name as my wife's. I also told them to PLEASE call those numbers.

One of the questions they asked me was if we have ever been disciminated against due to race or religion. I told him, this is it, right here, right now.

These are tough, sad times, indeed.
 
So you did recognise some of them? Were they other friends or relatives?

Asif2000 said:
They found a dozen or so people using my wife's name in their visa application as a point of contact, most of which we didn't recognize.
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Not to defend them, but perhaps they are also getting in touch with other ladies who match that name?

Asif2000 said:
How naive is that for them to assume that this must be my wife on their applications?
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Good answer.

Asif2000 said:
One of the questions they asked me was if we have ever been disciminated against due to race or religion. I told him, this is it, right here, right now.
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Triple Citizen said:
So you did recognise some of them? Were they other friends or relatives?
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Yes, they were her brother's wife, her brother's son, her mother and her dad. They all have visited here in the past and did already get the visa this time too.
 
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Again, not to defend them, but I think they just wanted to ensure that they complete their due deligence. You do realise that you didn't have to entertain State Department's request.
Other countries have other ways of verifying visa applications. When I wanted to visit India to see the house my grandfather lived in and the house my father was born at, local police turned up to interview my second cousins who live there. The funniest part was, these distant relatives of mine had never met me, yet they were interviewed. It took the Indian authorities 22 months to complete their checks :)


Asif2000 said:
Yes, they were her brother's wife, her brother's son, her mother and her dad. They all have visited here in the past and did already get the visa this time too.
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Triple Citizen said:
Again, not to defend them, but I think they just wanted to ensure that they complete their due deligence. You do realise that you didn't have to entertain State Department's request.
Other countries have other ways of verifying visa applications. When I wanted to visit India to see the house my grandfather lived in and the house my father was born at, local police turned up to interview my second cousins who live there. The funniest part was, these distant relatives of mine had never met me, yet they were interviewed. It took the Indian authorities 22 months to complete their checks :)
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I really appreciate your response. Can you expand a bit about me not having to entertain their request? I guess I kinda knew but it never crossed my mind because I didn't think much of it all.

What would have happened otherwise? A quick denial of his visa perhaps? We care less, really. I don't think that he cares either. Its been a year since he applied anyway. They have been holding his passport as a hostage ever since. But my question is, is that the extent of it though? - a denial of visa? No knock on my door in the middle of the night or anything right? I am probably reading too much into it but hey, they call me paranoid for a reason. I got absolutely nothing to hide though.
 
Asif2000 said:
I really appreciate your response. Can you expand a bit about me not having to entertain their request? I guess I kinda knew but it never crossed my mind because I didn't think much of it all.

What would have happened otherwise? A quick denial of his visa perhaps? We care less, really. I don't think that he cares either. Its been a year since he applied anyway. They have been holding his passport as a hostage ever since. But my question is, is that the extent of it though? - a denial of visa? No knock on my door in the middle of the night or anything right? I am probably reading too much into it but hey, they call me paranoid for a reason. I got absolutely nothing to hide though.
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Asif2000,

I kinda knew from your initial post about getting a call to appear in person that you were going to be grilled for a while. Visa issuance for people from the Middle East has become extremely difficult since 9/11 and maybe even before...who knows? Visa officers and security officials want to try to avoid failing to connect the D.O.T.S as they claim in our "terrorism parlance". Here is an argument which I hope you will see the logic of their harassment. Prior to granting your BIL another visa, maybe they are thinking that your BIL was doing a test run on entering the US through your visa sponsorship. He has been asking to come again, has been on numerous occasion, and maybe this time, he's coming for good and to do something. Why, he has been here before on a visa and gained the trust of US law enforcement officials, so no suspicion will follow him when he now returns because the "assumption" is he has obtained a visa before. I don't condone their treatment of you and your family.

On the issue of your wife's name being traced to a large number of people requesting US visa, it isn't good for he profile within the State Dept (DoE) and DoEsecurity officials. Unfortunately, it appears as if most of those names are in for people asking for visa, but I believe you could only account positively for 5 people who used her profile successfully for a visa, both of your family members. I think you should have told the officials that the should call or schedule a face to face meeting with every person with your wife's name.

You were discriminated against on the day of this interrogation. I like the answer you gave them. DHS or DoE won't have the energy send agents to break down your door, they could be in big trouble. You could be surprised that they might just approve his visa.
 
Al Southner said:
Asif2000,

I kinda knew from your initial post about getting a call to appear in person that you were going to be grilled for a while. Visa issuance for people from the Middle East has become extremely difficult since 9/11 and maybe even before...who knows? Visa officers and security officials want to try to avoid failing to connect the D.O.T.S as they claim in our "terrorism parlance". Here is an argument which I hope you will see the logic of their harassment. Prior to granting your BIL another visa, maybe they are thinking that your BIL was doing a test run on entering the US through your visa sponsorship. He has been asking to come again, has been on numerous occasion, and maybe this time, he's coming for good and to do something. Why, he has been here before on a visa and gained the trust of US law enforcement officials, so no suspicion will follow him when he now returns because the "assumption" is he has obtained a visa before. I don't condone their treatment of you and your family.

On the issue of your wife's name being traced to a large number of people requesting US visa, it isn't good for he profile within the State Dept (DoE) and DoEsecurity officials. Unfortunately, it appears as if most of those names are in for people asking for visa, but I believe you could only account positively for 5 people who used her profile successfully for a visa, both of your family members. I think you should have told the officials that the should call or schedule a face to face meeting with every person with your wife's name.

You were discriminated against on the day of this interrogation. I like the answer you gave them. DHS or DoE won't have the energy send agents to break down your door, they could be in big trouble. You could be surprised that they might just approve his visa.
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The guy cares less about the U.S visa actually. He probably won't even come even if he is granted the visa. He applied a year ago when he was free, right after his semester ended actually. He is very busy right now with his work.

There is no visa sponsorship from our side. If my wife's brother is going to ask me to eat his travel expenses, he can stay the hell home. LOL. He simply put in my wife's address on the visa application form for where he is going to be staying during his trip to the U.S. Thats all there is to it. And so did those other people we didn't know. Theer are plenty of ladies that share my wife's name. My wife did not fill out any form for his "visit" visa sponsorship. Don't even know if such a thing exists.

I would not be surprised at all if they approved the visa. Why wouldn't they? He should have gotten it in the first place when his dad, his mom, his wife and his kid got it.

Oh and Pakistan is not in the Middle East, in case you didn't know.

Thanks a bunch for your response. I just happened to visit the site today and saw a new post. Otherwise, I had forgotten all about the incident already.
 
We got another call from the same agent. He wants to meet again to ask some follow-up questions from the embassy back home. We are not at all comfortable meeting them the second time. We are U.S citizens and there is nothing to be afraid of. We just feel that line of questioning was unreasonable. He wants us to go meet them in or come to our house. My question is, how should we proceed?

1) Just go and meet with them?
2) Go and meet with them along with attorney?
3) Let them come to our house?
4) Tell them we can't meet but will talk on the phone?
5) Tell them we can't meet or discuss. period?

BIL doesn't care about the VISA. He simply applied along with others in the family who all got the VISA, btw.
 
We spoke to them. The questions were related to BIL's education, his employment/business, his traveling countries in the past. We answered the questions but told them to contact him directly for the questions related to him. I also told them that we would rather have them deny the visa then to bother me and my family in the future.
 
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