Don’t Waste Your Time. These Things Will Not Get Your Visa Out Of Administrative Processing
Your visa is stuck in administrative processing. You’ve been told you can’t get a visa because of something called 221(g), and your visa has been delayed. You’re frustrated. Is there anything you can do on your own to make this go faster?
I’m Josh Goldstein, an immigration lawyer, and I help families across the country and around the world get their visas out of administrative processing.
What people try to do on their own
So your visa is in administrative processing. What can you do about it? There are normally a few different things that people do to try to fix administrative processing before they contact me.
They communicate with the consulate
First, they try to communicate with the consulate. They go through the consulate’s website tool. They send an email or an inquiry through the system, and they inquire about the status of their application.
“What’s going on with my case? How long is this going to take? Is there anything I can do? Do you need documents? Do you need information? Is there anything I can do to help?” They do that and if they get any response at all, it’s usually not very helpful.
Generally, the consulate sends a boilerplate response that says, “Don’t contact us,” or “There’s no set time limit for how long administrative processing can take.” Or maybe they say it’s going to take 60 to 90 days or 120 days. It’s just a boilerplate response and has nothing to do with your particular case. They’re basically not communicating with you in any meaningful way.
They contact their U.S. senator or their congressional representative
Here’s the second thing that people try. They contact their U.S. senator or their congressional representative, and they say, “Hey. I was a student at the University of Michigan and my visa’s delayed. Is there anything you can do to help me?” The politician usually has a constituent services staff that includes an immigration point person. That person will make an inquiry on your behalf.
Within 30 or 60 or 90 days, the agency, the state department, the consulate, or USCIS will respond, and they’ll say, “We’ve received your inquiry and we’ve investigated the nature of your visa delay. And according to our background check, the visa is in administrative processing, and it will be resolved within a certain period of time.”
So you’re going to get a form letter back, and that form letter is going to give you no meaningful information whatsoever. This means that contacting the consulate is usually a waste of time. And contacting a U.S. senator is usually a waste of time as well.
They wait
The third thing that people do is to wait. You take your hands, you sit on them, and you just wait. You don’t know how long you’re going to have to wait. You don’t know why you have to wait. You’re just waiting.
Maybe the administrative processing for your visa will be cleared up within 30 days, within 60 days, within 90 days, or within 6 months. Who knows how long it’s going to take? Some people come to me after they’ve been waiting for years.
Most of the time, we’re able to get them approved very quickly. Usually, we can get approved in 6 to 12 weeks. But people often only come to us after everything that they’ve done hasn’t worked. They’ve tried everything and nothing else works, and it’s only at that point that they basically give up.
They finally reach an understanding that waiting is not going to solve the problem. Inquiries with the consulate are not going to solve the delay, and neither is additional processing time. Nothing will solve the delay.
They reach out to me
And so, they reach out to me. People contact me and they have me help them get out of administrative processing when nothing else works. They have reached a level of frustration where they just can’t handle any more additional waiting.
They cannot take an additional email or letter telling them that they’re stuck. They have given up. They’re frustrated. They’re mad, and it’s at that point where we get involved. In most cases, we can get people approved in 6 to 12 weeks.
If you’re stuck in administrative processing, if you’re frustrated and you’re tired of waiting for your visa to be processed, and if you can’t take it anymore, I want you to contact me. If you have questions about administrative processing or visa delays, please reach out to me. I’ll be happy to answer your questions.
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