benners

I have a question.

I am a final year medical student who has a place to do my elective in the USA. For this I need a B-1 visa. ON the form there is a tick box for "have you been arrested". When I was twenty, I was arrested for drunk and disorderly. The charge was withdrawn, and I was bound over for 6 months. I do not have a conviction or criminal record.

When I spoke to the embassy, the operators said that it may take 14-16 weeks to process (just because I ticked the box), instead of 5-7days. The trouble is I only have about 2 weeks between my appointment at the embassy and the date I am meant to start my elective. I have trouble believing that it will take 3 months to process to application for such a minor offence. Has any been through something similiar? or offer any advice? thank you

ps I have got a memorandum of conviction, that proves all of the above

Ingo Pakleppa - see web site for email

On Mon, 25 Oct 2004 14:38:19 +0000, benners wrote:

    >
    > I have a question.
    >
    > I am a final year medical student who has a place to do my elective in
    > the USA. For this I need a B-1 visa. ON the form there is a tick box for
    > "have you been arrested". When I was twenty, I was arrested for drunk
    > and disorderly. The charge was withdrawn, and I was bound over for 6
    > months. I do not have a conviction or criminal record.
    >
    > When I spoke to the embassy, the operators said that it may take 14-16
    > weeks to process (just because I ticked the box), instead of 5-7days.
    > The trouble is I only have about 2 weeks between my appointment at the
    > embassy and the date I am meant to start my elective. I have trouble
    > believing that it will take 3 months to process to application for such
    > a minor offence. Has any been through something similiar? or offer any
    > advice? thank you
    >
    > ps I have got a memorandum of conviction, that proves all of the above

Include a copy of the memorandum of conviction. My guess is that there
won't actually be a delay if the case is otherwise clear.

The delay the operator was talking of probably was based on the assumption
that the consulate may have to do a criminal record or security
investigation for you. The reason it takes so long - independent of the
nature of the conviction - is simply the processing time at the FBI. I
would not be surprised if the consulate ended up not even submitting you.
Of course, in the end you never know. There is really nothing that can
accelerate the visa processing, and pretty much everybody who gets caught
in this kind of background check suffers a hardship from it - and many
people get caught in it just for having been born in the wrong place.

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benners

Thank you very much for this advice.

I have my memorandum. I was also going to take along letters from my university saying that I am in good standing etc. Have you heard of people who have had similiar offences who have not had there application delayed for long periods?

Thanks again for your help