Lammy74

Hi All,

I have been with my fiance for a little over 2 years. We were going to get married later this year.

I moved here on an E2 Visa last February. My at the time Fiance (Now my wife) came over to see me on back to back ESTA's. She was advised to get a B1/B2 Visa. Unfortunately this was denied twice under 214b.

As a result, we decided to bring the wedding forward and got married on 4th January in Tobago. She had her interview at the Embassy last Monday, 14th January. They took a copy of my visa and our marriage certificate and issued her a 221g letter stating Administrative Processing; no further information was necessary and was told that she would "receive an E-Mail shortly"

Any ideas why this may be the case and it wasn't issued there and then? Do they do additional security checks or are they checking our marriage is legitimate as she went from a B1 application to an E2 spouse?

I would be grateful to hear of anyone else's similar experiences and expected wait times?

Many thanks,

Noorah101

Did they keep her passport, or give it back to her?
Does she have any heritage or ties to the Middle East or "terrorist" country?

Rene

Lammy74

Hi There,

They gave her passport back. She has no ties or heritage to the Middle East at all or any "terrorist" country.

The VO said she would "receive an e-mail soon"

They took a copy of my visa and a copy of our marriage certificate.

Some people have said that the E2 requires further security checks to B1 / B2. Or they maybe want to check the validity of our Marriage in case it's a "Marriage for a Visa" case.

But I can find no confirmation or information on this whatsoever.

Many thanks,

Chris.

Rete

If you receive a 221(g) letter at the time of your immigrant visa interview, that means that additional documents or information is needed for processing of your immigrant visa, and until that can be provided, your case will be put on hold. ... Original 221(g) letter.

Lammy74

Hi There,

They did not request any further information. And the ticked box on the letter is that "no further information is required"

To add some more information sorry: She was questioned a lot about our relationship during the interview:

"How long have you been together" - 2 Years
"Have you ever lived together" - yes, in England throughout 2017 to Feb 2018 when I traveled to USA
"When have you seen him since August" (When she last left USA) - for 2 weeks Sept / October in Canada, then in Tobago for 2 weeks at end of December early January when we got married.

I don't know if this indicates they are investigating the validity of our Marriage and how they would do this?

Many thanks,

shiversaint

I suspect they'll just do some casual research to see if there is any info out there to suggest the marriage isn't legitimate. I doubt the B visa denials have helped, either. Whoever advised her to go for those was poorly informed as she has a clear reason to overstay.

Not a lot you can do in this situation, OP.

Most administrative processing situations resolve positively and there's nothing here to suggest it won't. The question is how long. There's been a handful of cases lately where they delay was pretty small, a matter of a couple of weeks, and I think you're probably in for something like that. AP can drag on for months though so obviously don't make any plans until the visa is in hand.

Sadly you've just got to sit tight. I'm guessing the pattern of entries, visa denials and having not seen each other much, show pretty clearly that you got married earlier than intended so she can come to the US. Whilst a lot of people get married earlier than planned ahead of moving to the US on a newly acquired visa (this is quite normal in fact) the obviousness about what you've done will pique their interest and they'll want to check everything is kosher. Historically this wouldn't have been an issue but the current climate means cases like yours are getting picked out for further scrutiny.

Rete: That's not quite right. 221(g) letters can be issued for both information missing or for an application being placed on administrative hold with no further information required. This is well known.

Lammy74

[QUOTE=shiversaint;12625116]I suspect they'll just do some casual research to see if there is any info out there to suggest the marriage isn't legitimate. I doubt the B visa denials have helped, either. Whoever advised her to go for those was poorly informed as she has a clear reason to overstay.

Thank you for your reply. It was actually the CBP officer at the airport when she saw it was a quick turnaround on the ESTA. I've since learn't that listening to advice like that is a bad idea!

celticgrid

You said in the opening post that she was denied "twice". I presume from the timeline that those denied applications were within weeks of each other. That's got to contribute to their desire to check into things in your case.

scrubbedexpat099

Not immediately OK able due to prior issues so they had a few things to check before it can be issued, time unknown, probably not that long.

Lammy74

There was 10 weeks between interviews. It states on CEAC that case was updated on 24th January but no contact has been received and its still in AP.

shiversaint

This may take several weeks or even months in a worst case scenario to resolve.

Not that many AP cases resolve in less than a week or two.

Make sure to keep an eye on the email account that you provided, and check the spam folders too. Otherwise sit tight, nothing you can do right now and the general advice is to try and go about life as normal whilst you wait.