jamieoxford

I am so upset. I had my interview on June 9 and was told that I'd been approved and that my passport with the visa in would be sent in 7-10 days.

I called the US visa line and they have just told me that I have a 221 G and that my application has been suspended.

What could have happened?

thephionex

i found this hope it helps

http://www.immihelp.com/visas/221grefusal/

Noorah101

Sounds like it could be a couple of things:

1. The ConOff ended up needing more information, in which case they'll contact you to provide it; or

2. You got put in Admin Processing, in which case you just have to wait it out. There is no way of knowing how long clearance will take.

Are you by any chance of Middle Eastern heritage, or do you have a Muslim name? Sometimes a "hit" occurs on your name (meaning your name matches that of someone on a watch list), and they must manually go in and verify that it's not you.

Rene

jamieoxford

White British male here. He took my passport and said I'd been approved. :-(

Noorah101

Sorry to hear it's happened. Most likely he figured it would be approved (and thus spoke too soon), and ended up needing something else. What that something else could be, is anyone's guess at this point.

Did they say they'd be contacting you for more information?

Rene

jamieoxford

I've had not contact from them at all for the past couple of weeks, not since the interview. I'm in pieces right now.

Noorah101

I know, I'm so sorry. All I can do is say I hope it's nothing major, that's it's just some document missing, and easy for you to provide. I hope you hear something soon. You can try emailing them, or calling them again, perhaps.

Rene

jamieoxford

Hi, thanks for the information. Does anyone know how long it will be before I hear from the Embassy?

Thanks.

gnasher12

this is terrible news, but when you spoke to them on the phone, did you not ask why this happened? and what you should do next? I can't believe they would say to people there approved, let them pay the courier fee, waiting for their visa, when something like this can still happen.

jamieoxford

I know, thats what I don't get. All the embassy hotline gave me was a code and an email address for the embassy. I was told to use the code to ask why the process had been suspended. I thought I'd have been told sooner why it had been suspended and what I needed to do.

jamieoxford

There is a lesson here. Don't give up your apartment lease, quit your job, buy tickets just because a consular officer said you'd been approved. Wait until you have the visa in your hand.
http://images.ibsrv.net/ibsrv/res/sr...milies/sad.gif

Rete

Well, have you e-mailed the US Consulate with the code you were given?

It is standard to pay the courier fee because your passport has to be returned to you.

Remember you called the information line and you did not speak with anyone from the US Consulate so perhaps the information you were given is incorrect. I wonder if that line even has access to your file and can tell if your visa paperwork has been suspended.

jamieoxford

The hotline was able to tell me that the visa process had been suspended on June 10, the day after my interview. So, for 13 days, they have known that my visa processing was suspended but have not reached out to me. Does this imply that it is an internal issue otherwise, why would they not have contacted me sooner?

I emailed the consulate immediately with the code. I have a senator's office and a congressman's office on making inquiries.

I guess am just blown away that no one has contacted me to say why it has been suspended if they'd known for two weeks.

britishspouse

eeek yeah that sucks. I thought if they told you face to face you'd been approved it was all done and dusted. Normally it seems the people who get 221g's get them there at the same time, and they are told they have not yet been approved.

Did you get any clues in the interview? or did it all go fine?

Fingers crossed you get your VISA soon

jamieoxford

No clues at all, He just said, congratulations, have a great life together and took my passport.

sorry for all the venting. I'm just broken hearted that this has happened.