shezikhan

Hi all,

I applied for L1B visa in us embassy, London 2nd of March 18. After the interview the VO said "i go ahead and approve your visa" and he kept my passport. After 2 days i receive an email stating

Your visa application has been refused under Section 221(g) of the Immigration and Nationality Act, pending additional administrative processing. Section 221(g) prohibits the issuance of a visa to anyone whose application does not comply with the provisions of the Immigration and Nationality Act or related regulations. Additional administrative processing cannot be waived and we cannot issue a visa until the processing is complete. This review may take approximately 60 days to complete. In some cases, however, processing time is six months or longer. For U.S. immigration law purposes, including ESTA (see https://esta.cbp.dhs.gov) , this decision constitutes a denial of a visa.

Also requested this info, which I provided same day.

Your complete travel history for the last 10-15 years, in chronological order.
The full names of any siblings, children, and/or former spouses/partners *not* already provided in your initial application.
Your residence address history for the last 10-15 years, in chronological order.
All prior passport numbers and country/countries of issuance.
All prior occupation(s), plus a brief description if necessary, for the last 10-15 years.

My passports have been returned (including dependents)



I have no idea what is going on and what to expect as my career is on stake here if this drags on, Please help if anyone knows how long this can take ?

Thank you

scrubbedexpat099

AP in the UK is normally fairly quick, a few days everybody goes through it, longer ones are where you have connections with T Countries.

Usually.

shezikhan

David,

thanks for your reply. Although I am a British National now but I have Pakistani nationality at the same time. I had 221g back in 2007 and took three months.

But I am hoping since its L1B visa so not take much longer this time ?

cheers

scrubbedexpat099

It makes no difference, L1b or anything else, impossible to say how long.

Fred16

The quicker you get the information to them the quicker you will get a response.
Expect a four month wait and see it as a bonus should you get an approval earlier.

Good luck to you

Rete

Regardless of your British citizenship, you are a citizen of Pakistan, as well. I'm sure it is because of the latter that you are in Administrative Processing and why you are being asked for that information regarding trips, relatives, etc.

Having gone through AP once does not mean you don't have to go through it for each and every visa you apply for. It is unfortunately, but that is how visa life is at the moment for certain citizens and visitors to certain countries.

Sorry if it means you lose your opportunity to emigrate to the US for your employer but they should understand the ins and outs of the process and if they don't have them talk with their attorneys.

S Folinsky

Strange things might cause problems. There may be people with same name and date of birth. An old school chum may be under surveillance and your calls and texts show on his wireless account. I'm not kidding.

scrubbedexpat099

Everybody goes through AP, likely to be longer in this case.

AP has been around for a long time, not a temporary situation. Everybody is checked.

He is not looking to immigrate, this is a L1.

Pulaski

If his BE user name is indicative of his real name, then there may be a lot of false positive hits, meaning apparent (false) connections to a real problem.

Per the Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon phenomenon, he may also be only a degree or two from a true match, not a false one!

S Folinsky

Once had a case of the father of a naturalized AmCit. His immigrant visa was refused for "reason to believe" he was engaged in drug smuggling. It took a lot of digging and insisting to get even that much. We never were told was the "reason to believe" was. A year later one of dad's old school chums was arrested as part of the Russian Mafia with allegations of drug smuggling. So, dad admitted that he was often in touch with his old friend, but just as an old school chum.

The same name and date of birth has come up not too rarely. With some hope and alternative documentation, we have been able to correct those -- but they were not easy.

shezikhan

Thanks lot guys for replying.
I have a mixed feeling of how long this will take.

I wanted to see if someone aware of timings or perhaps it depends on individuals.

Cheers

Pulaski

It definitely depends, and given that the databases agent which your name is being compared are perpetually growing, it would potentially be a different answer if you had applied 12 months ago or apply again a couple of years in the future. So anything anyone says is no better than a guess.

As someone said above, "Expect a four month wait and see it as a bonus should you get an approval earlier." to which I would add, "... and don't be surprised if it takes six months."

shezikhan

That only means I lose my job opportunity and ended up problems at my current job.

How long before I can contact embassy, it says usually 60 days.

scrubbedexpat099

No time limit I know of, also not much point if it is still in AP it is in AP.

Pulaski

There is no "usual" when it comes to concerns about terrorism. Applications have been known to go into AP and never come out!