H-1b Stamping @ Hyderabad - 221(g) Administrative Processing - Please advise

[pradeeph1]

Hi all,

My H-1 petition got approved in 2015 and I started working for petitioner from Oct-2015. And I had my H-1 visa interview at Hyderabad consulate on 11-Jan-2016. It was a pretty long interview and finally I walked out with a 221 (g) form, with 'Administrative Processing' box checked.

I am hoping to gather more knowledge on how to come out of this situation, from those who were in the same boat before or those who came across such cases. Kindly share your 2 cents.

Note: I work from client location. My petitioner filed my H-1b, stating that I will be working on a in-house project.
Note: EVC model in my case: "End-Client --> Primary Vendor --> Vendor2 --> Vendor3 --> Current petitioner.

On the day of interview:

Visa officer started asking all general questions about my job duties, education, salary, duration of employment, how is my job related to my education and then the crucial part, which is as follows

VO: what is the website address of your petitioner?
me: Answered verbally , while I am searching for the printouts of the website that I got from my employer. Those docs have the website URL printed on them.

VO: Is the website functional? It says 'domain error'.
me: I do not know the reason, but I did see the same page when I tried to access the website yesterday and I have notified my employer. ( I was shocked to see that page the day before the interview, so I had to admit)

VO: what did they say?
me: They are looking into it and assured me that they will fix it as soon as possible.

VO: What is the address of your work location? (He asked this, looking at the address on the docs that I provided)
me: answered

VO: so, you work from an apartment?
me: No sir, that is the address of the office I work from. ( I do not what made him think like that)

VO walked off with my passport and the printouts of the website pages and after 15 minutes, he returns only to ask me to handover all the supporting docs that I want to give and asked me to wait.

I waited close to 90 minutes and then asked to appear at a different counter. This time, it is an Indian Lady with all my docs ( 221 (g) white form was on the top of the stack) and questions for me. She seemed to have good understanding about the EVC model.

--> Who is your client? Vendor? Employer? How many layers between you and the end-client? Why these many layers?

Do you work from your petitioner's office?
me: yes, and the address is xxxxx.
The VO is saying that it appears to be a residence. Does someone live at this address?
me: No maam. It is the office of xxxx (petitioner), where I work from.

She started going through all my documents and retained only those she wanted. She kept all the job verification letters from Vendors, employer and experience letter from my previous employer, and the 'Contact Information' sheet with all Employer, Vendor and Client info, who can confirm my employment.

Note: EVC model in my case: "End-Client --> Primary Vendor --> Vendor2 --> Vendor3 --> Current petitioner.

I sincerely appreciate everyone for taking time to help me out.

[tracker123]

Seek legal advice

I recommend consulting a lawyer and going over your case with them

[pradeeph1]

Visa Issued after 8 weeks!

Hi all,

Just wanted to let you all know, what happened with my case post 221 (g) white form. As I mentioned in the title it took 8 weeks for them to make a decision and fortunately it is in my favor.

Not sure why it took that long, but the processing time in my case is close to what they mention on their website (60 days). One observation during this process - the consulate folks (FPU) called me twice in between (3 weeks after the interview), first time, to inform me to ask vendors to respond to inquiries from Department of State and the second time (a week later), to confirm that they have everything they(Department of State) need. Between these two calls, I had to send them an email, SINCE THEY ASKED ME TO PROVIDE SOME MORE INFORMATION FROM MY END via EMAIL to "hydfpu".

So here, in my case, it appears to me that Consulate / FPU folks tried their best to quicken the process.
And to those who might face similar issue, be patient and do not feel low if the processing is taking longer. You just have to wait it out (I know it's easier said than done, but hey, I have been there myself). Keep the 60 day (per Consulate Website) processing period in mind, sometimes you might hear back in few weeks time.

FYI - I was ready for questions at POE (had my documents ready), luckily the POE officer(Detroit) just asked me two questions 1) What do you do? 2) who you work for?. He did not even ask for my I-797.
Before you board your final flight to land in US, you might have to go through another check, where you will be asked all questions about previous and current visa(s), work , education etc. This happened for me (along with every passenger to US) in Amsterdam Airport.

Thanks
Pradeep

[Codelock]

Hi all,

Just wanted to let you all know, what happened with my case post 221 (g) white form. As I mentioned in the title it took 8 weeks for them to make a decision and fortunately it is in my favor.

Not sure why it took that long, but the processing time in my case is close to what they mention on their website (60 days). One observation during this process - the consulate folks (FPU) called me twice in between (3 weeks after the interview), first time, to inform me to ask vendors to respond to inquiries from Department of State and the second time (a week later), to confirm that they have everything they(Department of State) need. Between these two calls, I had to send them an email, SINCE THEY ASKED ME TO PROVIDE SOME MORE INFORMATION FROM MY END via EMAIL to "hydfpu".

So here, in my case, it appears to me that Consulate / FPU folks tried their best to quicken the process.
And to those who might face similar issue, be patient and do not feel low if the processing is taking longer. You just have to wait it out (I know it's easier said than done, but hey, I have been there myself). Keep the 60 day (per Consulate Website) processing period in mind, sometimes you might hear back in few weeks time.

FYI - I was ready for questions at POE (had my documents ready), luckily the POE officer(Detroit) just asked me two questions 1) What do you do? 2) who you work for?. He did not even ask for my I-797.
Before you board your final flight to land in US, you might have to go through another check, where you will be asked all questions about previous and current visa(s), work , education etc. This happened for me (along with every passenger to US) in Amsterdam Airport.

Thanks
Pradeep

That's Great News! Congrats!
I just wanted to know what was your address like that made them think that you work in an apartment??