Similar AP Situations?

[asano]

Hi all,

 

I am a first time poster but long time fan of the forums!

 

I applied for a IR-1 on behalf of my wife in Beijing earlier this year, back in February, and she had her interview in Guangzhou on May 21st this year. Everything went well, but because she was a party member we had to do the obvious admin processing. I had prepared all the documents for admin processing related to party membership they require for this beforehand (before the interview), after talking to some friends and reading on this forum. My wife let them know about her party membership at the interview and gave them all the documents. They mentioned they needed no other documents and that her case would be processed within 4-6 weeks or so. I followed up with them after 6 weeks (I know it normally takes 60+ days) to see if they needed any additional documents and they mentioned they were good and just to wait. I follow up with them once a month or so but her case is still in admin processing after 120 days or so. I know there are a couple holidays in there, and the consulate move, but is this amount of time normal? I've seen 60-100 days on the forums but 120 days seems long, especially when no other documents were required.

 

My wife joined in College at the urging of her professor and roommates due to her being an excellent student. She never attended a meeting after joining and didn't work in a position that required membership, nor has she worked in the government. Her mother paid her dues on her behalf each year because the local neighborhood party guy would bug them like hell to do it. I understand this doesn't change the fact she was a party member, but it seems odd that it's taking this long. Is this amount of time normal, or does the level of membership in the party not really matter?

 

Thank you for any assistance or advice you all can provide me!

[dnoblett]

AP can vary by a lot, CCP Waiver involves the consulate sending a request to DOS in D.C. Who knows what the hold up is, can be the consulate move, or perhaps got side tracked a little in Washington.

[tsap seui]

Hang in there Anaso, your wife will get the visa. These CCP AP's are totally unpredictable, as Dan said. I know it's tough as heck counting the days and waiting on the bureaucrats to do their thing, just know it will work out for you guys as it has for so many before you. The wait makes your head do strange things, you start second guessing everything, thinking negatively at times...having been through "the wait", a supposed 3-4 month wait which turned into 4 years I'd say set 4 months as your AP timeline and count your blessings when it comes sooner. Keep a positive attitude and live happy, not long from now your wife will have her visa and the wait will be something you two look at each other and say with pride..."We made it."

 

tsap seui

[Doug]

I guess I better look into this and... get copies of all CCP info she has - ready for the interview? OK.

 

A caoch IS a government worker, but I hope the US Govt. sees the dif, in our case.

[Randy W]

I guess I better look into this and... get copies of all CCP info she has - ready for the interview? OK.

 

A caoch IS a government worker, but I hope the US Govt. sees the dif, in our case.

 

I guess I better look into this and... get copies of all CCP info she has - ready for the interview? OK.

 

A caoch IS a government worker, but I hope the US Govt. sees the dif, in our case.

 

Doug - read the other thread (if you haven't already) on the guy who was denied his citizenship application because of having joined the Communist Party voluntarily, for a "better future". The USCIS Goon (there's no better word for it) picked up on those words/got a wild hair up his a$$. No reason for alarm, there - but you should probably be aware of it.

 

http://candleforlove.com/forums/topic/46102-citizenship-denied-advice-please/

Edited September 18, 2013 by Randy W (see edit history)

[lhp]

asano,

 

My wife interviewed about a month after your wife, and we are still waiting, too. Similar to your wife, my wife was told that the Administrative Processing would take a month to complete.

 

I have emailed the Consulate every month, receiving the stock no-answer answers each time, and just sent a request to one of our senators to investigate. Doing so required filling out a paper form, signing it, and sending it to the senator's office. I made a donation to her reelection campaign before submitting the request, so I hope they give it some extra care.

Here's to hoping we don't have to wait much longer!

[asano]

Thanks to all for the feedback, info, and support!

 

We are still waiting and hope to hear something soon.

 

Just as an aside, if anyone views this thread in the future and wants to check their visa's status (including Admin Processing) they can check this website to see if their case has been updated...https://ceac.state.gov/CEACStatTracker/Status.aspx?.

[lhp]

Thanks for the update in the thread and via PM. Sorry to hear your wife hasn't yet gotten a response; I hope we all get good news soon.

 

We have been religiously checking her application's status via the CEAC page you linked...the last update was September 26. Is yours the same? I have been wondering if that's when the name check was sent back to GZ or if the database is updated at the end of the month. I shouldn't try to read too far into the tea leaves, of course, but waiting is hard, especially after the CO said one month.

 

Have you contacted a senator yet? I did several weeks ago, no response yet. After three weeks have passed I plan to give them a follow-up call.

 

Good luck with the waiting and best wishes for good news to come soon! We are resigned to being in China through December; hoping to be back in the US for Christmas!

Edited October 12, 2013 by lhp (see edit history)

[asano]

Hi LHP,

 

I should have clarified earlier about the site I posted. If you message the Consulate about your spouse's case then the date they reply to you (give or take a couple days) will show up as the last update day on the site I linked. This may be really misleading to some people since you think you have an update but its just the date the consulate responded to you. If the consulate did not respond to you anywhere close to the date of the update then you may be seeing progress on your spouse's case which is great news!!!

 

I did contact my Senator and Representative as did some of my family. Not much has been done by my Senator or Represenative. I believe both my Senator and Representative contacted the consulate but because the case is in Admin Processing my understanding is that the Politicians cannot do much at this point. My understanding is that the Consulate will respond to the politician but this has little effect most of the time since I have had no problem getting responses from the consulate itself. The larger issue is that DHS (or whoever is doing the AP) is taking forever and is unable to be contacted. I'm not sure if the Senator can contact someone other than the consulate but they told me they were able to contact the consulate and that's pretty much all they can do, so please let me know if you hear otherwise. I'm almost to the 150 day mark though so I am hoping the consulate will provide me a new kind of response.

 

I hope you and your spouse make it back for Christmas! My wife and I are being separated (physically) now since I need to return to the states for work. It sucks, but I'm hopeful she gets approved soon, and a couple months apart isn't that long in the long run. I hope though no one else has to do that and they can speed AP up in the future.

[sweetpie]

We are waiting too, agree at this point senitors couldnt help because of AP...hope you will have good news soon, then it means we might be close too...such a painful wait

[warpedbored]

There is very little politicians can do to speed up a visa. The USCIS is answerable to no one but the Dept. Of State. Even with them they're semi autonomous. A politician can make an inquiry but they're likely to get the same canned response you do.

[lhp]

How long have you been waiting, sweetpie?

[asano]

Has anyone gotten any updates yet on their AP status or received any news? We had two updates on the status website before the end of October but then nothing happened with the case as it is still in AP according to the status website. Were almost to 6 months waiting now so I hope we hear something soon.

[lhp]

Nothing here, either. We've not had any updates on the status website, so I hope that the activity you saw indicates that you'll get good news soon. My wife has indicated that some of the people active on the 001 forums have started to get their visas, so hopefully this backlog is close to being resolved.

 

I know that it's likely not something under his auspices, but I have written (and today will send) a letter to Gary Locke describing and (gently) complaining about the lack of communication and general uncertainty that seems institutionalized in the process.

[asano]

I don't think that is a bad idea at all. I've also been thinking about what we can do to try and improve things. I think there are some real issues in the process and the fact it deprives US Citizens of their spouse for an unknown period of time seems to be a major issue and violation in my opinion.