mimilondon

Where do i begin?!?....Okay, back in July 2008 i took part in an exchange program wit my university to study in NY for a year. I applied for a J-1 visa and was approved right away on interview. i completed the year abroad and left several weeks before my visa was expired. Then in 2009 i travelled back to NY for a 10day stay during x-mas break on ESTA, i was stopped at customs for further security checks but that wasnt much of hassle.

In 2010 I fortunately succeeded in a internship placement in NY for a year working for RBS, on my interview for the J-1 visa my application was subjected to 'adminitrative processing'. In January 2011 i pulled my application out as i lost out on the internship due to my case pending for 5months.

Moving forth i booked a holiday back to NY to visit some friends and applied for ESTA online but my travel authorisation was 'declined'. When calling ESTA to find out why that was, they informed me to go through the embassy to travel to the states. Baring in mind Im a 23yr old female who is a British Citizen with no ciminal record or any history of breaching any visa conditions. With that being said i applied for a B2 visa and AGAIN was subjected to further admin processing in Jan2011. My application has been pending to this date (6 months and counting) and no update has been given. All i would like to do is vist some friends and family. I work full time with the NHS and proved this on my B2 visa interview, and hold strong connections to the UK. When contacting the embassy i recieve the same responds that indivdual cases can not be looked into and all i can do is wait... I have now applied for the DHS TRIP form and waiting on my case to be looked at because i believe im being discrimiated based on my religion and name.

i was also thinking about getting some sort of legal advice to see if my case has some sort of hope or whether i should just give up....Any advice would be helpful and i would be so grateful.

Thanks for reading.

meauxna

It's not that you are being discriminated -against- based on name, but it's very likely that's the cause of the lengthier checks you have to go through. You may have a name match 'hit' with a bad person.

I don't think you need legal advise to determine the 'hope' potential of your case, and I don't think you should give up. You just need to wait and see.
I would certainly move on with my life while waiting, if I were you, but 6 months is not an abnormal amount of time for AP.

crg

How did you answer the ESTA question about ever having been denied a visa?

Is it a common name? I suspect anyone who shared a name with someone who has been deemed unsuitable for travel could expect scrunity, even if that name is John Smith.

ian-mstm

Respectfully, the US government has the right to decide whether or not to issue a visa to a non-US citizen residing outside the US. You can call it what you want... for the US, it's a matter of national security!

As for your claim of discrimination... if you want to throw blame around, blame those who hijacked 4 planes on 9/11/01.

Ian