Jono

Due to our rather unusual circumstances, the only requirement we need to satisfy is the name check requirement ... and, surprise, surprise, they use that as an excuse to hold us up for months. We've now been waiting for more than 4 months, or 127 days to be precise ... and there's been no word beyond "it's pending". So, now I'm starting to think about worse case scenarios. How long have these things been known to take?

Get ready for a long wait, and no communication about why. We've been waiting for more than 4 months now, and can't get any kind of response out of them about what is going on.

Hi Again Just to clarify, the E3 visa is a United States work visa, reserved for Australians only. It's like an H1B, only different! It's supposed to be easier, and it does in fact cost less to apply for ... but as noted, doesn't do any good at all now I've run into this ridiculous name checking thing. How many Chinese people have the family name Lin!?!? 100 million? So, that's why it's difficult for me to find threads relevant to me ... an Australian trying to get a Chinese wife into USA on the basis of his work visa ... Jono

Hi Does anyone know anything about Australian E3 visas? I'm an Australian working in USA, but my wife is on a Chinese passport. The nationality of the spouse isn't supposed to matter ... so she's supposed to be able to get an Australian E3 partner visa. Wouldn't you know it? We run into the "name check" business that I've read about here. Unfortunately most of the advice doesn't apply, since we have to do everything through the US consulate in Sydney, and they don't know anything beyond telling us "the case is pending for additional administrative processing." Timeline: we applied on June 13. We were told she needed additional checking because of a name hit. We've had a congressman and a senator and a former consul and an immigration lawyer we hired ask about our case, and have still got nothing beyond "pending". Does anyone here know anything? What exactly is happening? Jono