You can’t. Simply put, you cannot avoid administrative processing…

You can’t. Simply put, you cannot avoid administrative processing. However, you can reduce the length of time the ADMINISTRATION PROCESSING review will take and the odds that it will result from a mistake made during case preparation. To shorten AP as much as possible, you need to be thoroughly familiar with your case, and ready to preload all of the necessary information, so that the necessary checks can start before the case gets to the DEPARTMENT OF STATE / National Visa Centre, and be completed as fast as possible. We, the F4 India Immigration Law office, always advise an intending Immigrant who is waiting for his NVC Visa Processing to start must hire an attorney for their case.

The consular officers are advised not to reveal to visa applicants the specific reason for administrative processing in a given case: Posts should not inform interested persons, including petitioners/ sponsors, beneficiaries, or even attorneys, that a case has been referred to the Department for a name-check or an advisory opinion. So although you may not be told the exact reason your client is in AP, you can often avoid AP by preparing for it in advance, or after submission of your case, by reviewing for potential issues that can be resolved. At a minimum, you should prepare your case to address the most common issue likely to be encountered by your demographic. For example, if your client is from El Salvador and has a relatively common name, you can reduce processing times related to name checks for gang members by providing contextual information for your clients such as the names of close friends and family members in order to differentiate from potential HITS. You might be wondering What is “HITS”. It is a technical term used for a Database. All Visa Applicants have their biographic and biometric data checked against numerous U.S. and International Databases and the results are provided to the consular officer for consideration during visa adjudication

Similarly, if your client is from a country with allegedly high rates of immigrant visa fraud, such as Vietnam or Somalia, you will want to spend extra time establishing your relationships in order to remove all doubt. Furthermore, for individuals from countries with low-quality identity data, such as Somalia you will need to satisfy additional identity requirements by providing more information and documentation establishing consistent use of the same identity for the last 5 to 15 years, preferably using documents that do not originate in the country of nationality.

PRELOADING

Preloading is the act of providing the consulate with the information you know it needs to complete an advisory opinion or other cause of administrative processing before the case arrives at the consulate. While the steps are straightforward, be careful because maybe you are providing more information than is normally necessary to process a case. At the same time, use caution while preloading to ensure you do not create issues that may not have otherwise existed. This is also one of the critical reasons to hire an attorney as they know how much information is required and how much to deliver.

However, for petition-based visas, it is your interest to preload information commonly used to deny cases for that type of client at the intending post. By filing additional information with the petition to USCIS, you can mitigate potential issues, even when the information is not directly requested in any instructions or agency guidance. For example, when dealing with a high identity fraud country, it is a best practice to include multiple forms of documentation establishing the individual’s identity beforehand. While DOS only requires the passport, it does not accept it as affirmative proof of identity for all countries. As a result, it is efficient to include in the petition a copy of the visa applicant’s UNHCR identification, country identification, school records, and other documents that thoroughly establish the individual’s continuity of identity. By providing this additional information to DHS, you allow the security screening to start sooner and you can directly protect yourself from a denial at the consulate based on an allegation that your client did not provide enough evidence of identity. This also makes it easier in the event you ever have to litigate the case.

For immigrant visa and petition-based cases, our certified Paralegals make sure that the client carries all the documents set which were preloaded to the NVC, for the consular interview. Thus it maximizes the possibility that the consular officer receives the relevant information or that the relevant information is readily available to whatever agency will be doing the necessary investigations and will make a final decision for your client. You also clearly establish a trail of evidence that supports litigation.

For nonimmigrant non-petition visas, you have to do the same thing but include it with the application. For example, when helping an F-1 or J-1 students in any TAL related field, it is important to include information from the university about the program of study, the nature of any research, materials/tools used, whether or not the student will have access to classified information, any relevant controls for classified information, and the sources of funding for any research projects. Although most of your clients will already have this information, thoroughly review the letters provided by the university as they often don’t go into enough detail or contain inconsistencies. You will save substantial time by editing the letters in advance before the embassy asks for more information. It often helps to spend an extra week today could save them a month or more of AP later on.

When a client has experienced multiple visa refusals, it is often prudent to send additional information to the Embassy ahead of time and alert them that the client will be bringing additional information to the interview. It is also necessary to encourage clients to not let an officer refuse to take documents that are important to the case – there is nothing worse than an officer refusing to take an I-864 at the interview, only to then deny for lack of evidence of sponsorship. While consular officers have limited time and resources, there is nothing more frustrating than having a client explain that they were denied for something that the evidentiary packet resolved.

There are exceptions to preloading cases, but they come down to applying judgment and common sense: if you think the evidence will lead to an unfavourable misinterpretation of your case then you do not want to submit it unless it is required or absolutely necessary to cover larger issues

Remember, ultimately an attorney’s job is to unite the client with family or an employer in the U.S. as quickly as possible. Thus, it is important to balance the likelihood that the visa will be issued within a few more months by working with the system versus an indeterminate period of years that warrants aggressive tactics including litigation that may risk a retaliatory finding of inadmissibility.

Information. It often helps to remind clients that spending an extra week today could save them a month or more of AP later on.

When a client has experienced multiple visa refusals, it is often prudent to send additional information to the Embassy ahead of time and alert them that the client will be bringing additional information to the interview. It is also necessary to encourage clients to not let an officer refuse to take documents that are important to the case – there is nothing worse than an officer refusing to take an I-864 at the interview, only to then deny for lack of evidence of sponsorship. While consular officers have limited time and resources, there is nothing more frustrating than having a client explain that they were denied for something that the evidentiary packet resolved.

There are exceptions to preloading cases, but they come down to applying judgment and common sense: if you think the evidence will lead to an unfavourable misinterpretation of your client’s case then you do not want to submit it unless it is required or absolutely necessary to cover larger issues

Remember, ultimately an attorney’s job is to unite the client with family or an employer in the U.S. as quickly as possible. Thus, it is important to balance the likelihood that the visa will be issued within a few more months by working with the system versus an indeterminate period of years that warrants aggressive tactics including litigation that may risk a retaliatory finding of inadmissibility.