Mexrab79

Hello! I'm new to the forum and hope to get some insights on my sister's LPR case. It's a long story but will summarize it here:

I'm a US citizen through marriage. My mom is a LPR through me, she then applied a LPR for my sister and my sister's son (she is divorced). After about 9 years wait, my sister had an interview at the U.S. Embassy Tbilisi, Georgia on 12/27/2021. She lives in Azerbaijan, so she needs to have the interview at Tbilisi.

The interview wasn't going what we expected, she was told that some documents were provided incorrect or incomplete, specifically about the information on the police certificate (it was kind of the differences between the law/regulation of the country of Azerbaijan and Georgia, but the officer used the law of Georgia to review her case). The officer refused to speak Russian or English with her and didn't give enough information about what exactly missing. After the officer left the room, another woman who spoke Russian told her what additional documents should be sent to the Embassy, then they would continue the process. The woman also asked my sister to send her and her son's birth certificate and passports, so they could put the stamps on the passports without them making another trip to the Tbilisi embassy again.

On 1/9/2022, my sister submitted all documents through online and received an acknowledgement from the embassy that her case was undergoing administrative processing and usually took within 60 days to resolve. She also mailed the original copies through Fedex to the Tbilisi embassy and confirmed that the package was delivered.

After 7.5 months, we still didn't hear anything from the Tbilisi embassy. We do have an attorney but she seemed couldn't help much except sending emails asking for status update and no response as well. We consulted another attorney who suggested us to get help from our State Senator. We did and told the Senator the whole story, her office helped sending an inquiry to the embassy but also got the response that my sister's case was still under process. The Senator office said once the case is in the embassy, there is very limited that they can do.

We are at a point that we already exhausted what we can, and feel unknown to the future. My sister was upset and kind of give up, but because of the passports have been sent to the embassy, they can't go anywhere either. The status from the USCIS is still showing "Refused", the documents that my sister submitted on the website are still marked as "Submitted", instead of "Accepted". It seems what we can do is just wait, but we don't know her case is really still in process or actually is considered final. I would like to know if anyone has similar situation or advise what else we can do. I appreciate your time.

Noorah101

Once a case goes into admin processing, there is no "normal" timeline anymore. It can take weeks, months, or possibly years. This is especially true from countries like Iran, Georgia, Azerbaijan, etc.

The only thing that can be done is wait.

Rene

S Folinsky

Rene

You may very well be right. That said, OP’s description rings a lot of bells based upon my decades of experience. OP wasn’t in the consulate. So we are getting OP’s description of what her sister said. Add to that that neither OP or her sister are familiar with the system and how consulates are organized and who has authority to do what. When confronted with the type of situation, I would endeavor, as an attorney to speak to a consular officer about the status of the case. Note WHO I would speak with - the guy or gal with the actual authority, not an assistant or clerk. As an attorney, I could often ( but not always) do this.

i would be exceedingly polite ( a colleague with a pretty aggressive personality described it as “groveling.”) . Oil works better than vinegar.

Tbilisi is a small post as these things go so the legal grapevine on what can be done is rather sparse I would imagine.