Overseas Consular Immigrant Visa Processing
Consular Immigrant Visa Processing
(CP) is a procedure that is available to all intending immigrants, no
matter where they are located.
Through this procedure, the application is made with the intending
immigrant's "home" consular district. An applicant's home district is
usually defined the place where the applicant last lived for at least
six months before coming to the United States and where the applicant
has the unrestricted right to return and remain for at least six months.
While the applicant may be anywhere in the world (including the U.S.)
when the application is initiated, the applicant must attend the final
interview, in person, at the consulate. The Department of States uses
it's National Visa Center (NVC) to pre-process consular immigrant visa
applications before sending the files overseas. NVC processing normally
takes approximately six months from the date the underlying immigrant
preference petition is approved. This means that within six months of
the date of petition approval, the applicant can reasonably expect to be
interviewed - assuming that the applicant's priority date is current.
Normally, consular processing takes about one week overseas. Applicants
should plan on waiting three to five days for the results of their
medical exams to be returned, and another morning for the actual visa
processing. The authority of consular officers does not include the wide
grant of discretion given to CIS officers considering adjustment of
status applications.
A consular officer must issue an immigrant visa to an applicant who is
otherwise eligible. A consular officer may not refuse to issue a visa to
an eligible applicant in the exercise of discretion. If a person is
found to be ineligible for an immigrant visa, that decision must be made
on the basis of hard factual evidence. The applicant must be advised of
the specific reason and given an opportunity to refute it. Most denials
of consular immigrant visa applications are for incomplete documents. In
such cases, when the applicant produces the missing documents, the
application is approved.
The second largest number of denials result from fraud. This typically
takes the form of a false employment verification letter, a fraudulent
college transcript, or a fake job offer. The remaining denials stem from
applicants being subject to one of more of the grounds of exclusion.
Unlike adjustment of status (AOS) applications before the CIS, consular
immigrant visa applications rarely suffer from incomplete FBI name check
results. The Department of State reports that approximately 98% of their
FBI name check requests are cleared within 15 days of the date
requested. Unless and until the file is complete - including all
required security background checks - the NVC will not schedule an
interview.
Unlike AOS applications, which may only be filed once an applicant's
priority date becomes current, CP applications can be processed up to
the point of requesting a visa number and scheduling an interview while
the applicant's priority date is not yet current. As a result, an
applicant doing consular processing will receive an immigrant visa
interview date shortly after his or her priority date becoming current,
while an applicant for AOS is only getting started at that point.
