Hi ​​​Roachus Maximus and welcome to the forum. Great that you found your way here as it's not easy signposting it.

If you haven't yet found the tracker spreadsheet, here is the link: NIV VISA / I-192 / ARO Waiver of Inelligibility wait times - Google Sheets I'll add a row for you, so you can see where you are relative to others.

As you will have almost certainly seen in the media, the USA has substantially tightened its immigration enforcement and policies. For those in the unfortunate position of requiring a waiver of ineligibility, one of the changes has removed the issuance of a previous waiver as a positive factor in making a recommendation for a new waiver, so if they did give you a positive response re a recommendation on the 2nd October, at least you've cleared the first hurdle.

As several in this forum would report based on recent experience, the fact that one has had several previous waivers, owns property, has a family, good income - everything necessary to demonstrate non-immigrant intent - may still not be enough to overcome even what one might consider a minor decades-old conviction under current enforcement policies.

No one here knows what's going to happen over the next year to 18 months. The current shutdown is almost certainly going to have a negative impact on processing times if it increases the backlog. As it stands, we have people in the tracker who are rapidly approaching or well over 1 year now, and the trajectory is still heading up :-(

All I can say is that August 31st 2026 looks very unlikely based on current timelines, and wish you the best of luck. Do keep us posted and we're here to offer moral support :-)

jools

HI Jules thanks so much for your quick and detailed response and also for adding me to your tracker, that is a great idea. Think Ill be pushing back the date for sure regrettably. When im back home from work, Ill be looking at the tracker and reading some more recent posts on here 2024 onwards so get myself back up to speed on current situation similar to mine.

Thanks again for the update Jules really appreciate it :-)

Thanks Jools

were just trying to decipher the absolute mess of instructions that are in my online account , it’s about as clear as mud

really can’t understand what they want me to do with the passport and whether we’re supposed to send more documents to this mail box place?

honestly I don’t think I’ve ever read something so confusing , there’s an entire office gathered round my pc right now and not one person can figure it out

Do they want a DS-160 filling in again and sending ? I thought they already had that from last year

thanks

Sorry for the clear typo, I mean "Jools" :-)

Copy and paste the instructions on here? And somebody can try and help you figure it out.

If you’ve had the email asking for your passport for adjudication all you need to do is print out the ‘courier in’ instructions that will be attached to your email. Then take that and your passport to your nearest ‘Mail Boxes Etc’ branch and they’ll do the rest for you. They’ll ask you to fill in a simple form while you’re there and they’ll charge you about £28 but the process is pretty simple. They will have handled lots of these and so know what to expect and what’s needed etc.

Good luck 👍

Hi Jools, also with regards too some people you mention above being rejected, does it currently appear to be more of a positive outcome (being issued a visa despite the excessive long wait times)? I know its a potentially how long is a piece of string...

The duration of your application doesn't appear to have much if any bearing on the likelihood of success. Some here have waited a very long time only to get an email refusing their application on the grounds of not having sufficient ties to their home country. In my case, I've waited over a year and recently been asked to send my passport in for adjudication, which sounds encouraging but others in a similar situation have (quite cruelly) still been refused at this stage. Like it or not, it seems much harder to get a waiver under the current administration and so expecting a refusal with a slim chance of success is probably the best way to look at it.

thanks, that’s what I’m going to do - heading up into town today to try and get it sorted , boys off school so will hit a museum or something after too to at least make a bit of a day of it

I'll second gentian's response!

thanks both gentian joolsjools

fingers crossed for you gentian

Dropped passport at Holborn mail box place this afternoon , so we’ll see what goes on I guess.

Thanks

Holding thumbs for you. The return data from September shows a range of 8-13 days from drop off to return, so hopefully you'll get something back soon.

jools

Sent in my passport on 22/10 and just checked and noticed my status was been changed from ‘Refused’ to ‘Approved’ today. Seems I’m at the final step now so fingers crossed for an ‘Issued’ status soon.