120 days long check, AP summary

Hi, everyone. I'm writing this article to share some of my experience and knowledge during my F-1 visa renewal application on Dec. 2018. This article is typed in English so you can forward it as reference for academic or research advisors of U.S. in the future.

I used to hold a ten-year B1/B2 visa before I applied F-1 visa for a Ph.D. program in Materials Science and Engineering on June 2017. My first application ended up with a three-week administrative processing and it is not surprising that the visa is only effective for one year. This is normally true for Ph.D. students who studies engineering at U.S., while special attention is on subjects like hyperfine manufacturing, robotics, artificial intelligence, material science, electrical engineering and so on. Ironically, a one-year visa means that after your stay at U.S. for over a year, if you leave the border of U.S., like say go back to your homeland, you need to renew your visa. Of course, the visa renewal should be conducted outside U.S. and interview cannot be waived for F-1 visa holders. While it's said that your first application of one specific type of visa should be in your home country, a visa renewal can be at any third country like Mexico, Canada and Japan.

After my study abroad at U.S. for a year and half, I missed my family so much that I decided to go back to China. As I mentioned above, I need to go through the visa renewal application and interview all over again to ensure my entrance after my holiday break. I consulted many Chinese Ph.D. students who did the same in the past, the average waiting time for AP to complete is around five weeks or so. There's only one case in which AP lasts for three months. I scheduled my break for forty days and chose the U.S. consulate at Guangzhou, China for the interview. Everything went well during the interview. After the greetings and entering the SEVIS ID on I20, the officer asked for three documents from me, which are my advisor's CV, my CV and study plan. While I was preparing for the files, the officer was reaching for a file packet and later collected the submitted documents in it. The officer then said “Okay, your visa was approved but it needs to go through an administrative processing (AP) which may take two to three weeks.” Then he took the passport, along with the collected documents.

It turns out that once your case entered the AP, you don't even have to check the status online in the first three weeks. Since it's December, both the consular and Department of States at Washington, D.C. will take holiday break for approximately a week. Unfortunately, after the Christmas, as the news goes, the U.S. government was shutdown continuously for 35 days, the longest in the history. Although the government was opened again on Jan 25th, my visa application was still pending for AP. I missed my flight back to U.S. in mid Jan. I started to write to the U.S. consulate through the e-mail address: support@ustraveldocs.com and support-china@ustraveldocs.com and it turned out you always get the same templated response from both sides, indicating that the process is still undergoing and can't be waived, blah, blah, blah. Also it turned out that you got the same response from giving a feedback through your personal portal on the visa application system.

So when it reaches to 60 days, as the official site of U.S. consulate at China indicate (http://www.ustraveldocs.com/cn_zh/cn-niv-221ginfo.asp), non-immigrant visa applicants who hasn't got any update can submit an inquiry to the consulate directly by writing to them through e-mail. I did so and later the consulate at Guangzhou replied with a online inquiry form and you need to write again. Again, I received the templated response from the non-immigrant visa unit of Guangzhou consulate. It appears, that whether you are writing to support@ustraveldocs.com, support-china@ustraveldocs.com or submitting a feedback on visa application system or an inquiry through the link they sent, the response are basically in the same words, which means it's always from the staff of the consulate where you apply. So, I was always contacting the same resources and didn't receive any new information. By the way, if you write in English the response is in English, if Chinese, then you end up with response in Chinese. It doesn't make any difference though.

Then I called DOS using number +1 202-485-7600 for several times to consult the status of my application. Every time I called them, they just said that my case is till under AP and nothing more. So I'm guessing the calling service staff can only see very limited information on AP case, perhaps as little as we do in CEAC system. I tend to believe calling the DOS non-immigrant visa unit will not give you any useful information, not even mention expedite the process.

At the same time, I contacted both the international student office of my school and two senators in our state. Both the three third parties sent an inquiry to the consulate every month and received templated response each time although the reply is signed by the principle of the consulate general. I sincerely asked the school and senator office to write to DOS directly instead of the consulate because I believe it is the agencies back in DOS responsible for the delay. But it turned out that they are reluctant to do so. I also contacted the visa office of National Academy of Science (NAS) by submitting a questionnaire (http://sites.nationalacademies.org/PGA/biso/visas/PGA_048197). This questionnaire can help students who holds a F-1 visa and J-1 visiting scholar and B1/B2 visa holders who's going to anticipate academic meetings in three months.

We all checkees (people who get checked in AP) regard these time points crucial: 30 days, 60 days, 90 days and 120 days. If you didn't receive any update after waiting for four months, it's very likely that your case was falling into an eternal “black hole”. The only option is to reapply. Another case will be established for your application. I start to get anxious about the AP so I write to the consulate again asking about their opinion in doing the reapplication. Luckily I got a phone call from consulate-Guangzhou. They told me the best way is to keep waiting cause they think even if I revoke the current one and go through the interview again, it's very likely I will go through AP again. Another point they told me is that the consular had transferred my check documents already, four days after my interview. The consular is waiting for the security advisory opinion (SAO) from DOS.   

When it's approaching 100 days of AP, I wrote again to the international office of my school, and clearly stated what I have done and got. The staff told me that they talked to the Director of Federal Government Relations at our school and see what can be done. I don't hear any update from them later but when it's finally reaching to 120 days, things start to be good for me. Luckily, I got my visa issued when it reaches to 123 days.

December of 2018 is a disastrous month for checkees who studies STEM. International affairs between China and America was complicated and tense. The unusual long delay of visa processing may somehow contribute to the tense bilateral relationships. Even though you are just renewing your expired visa, the chance of long check is still high. One thing we may notice is that some of the long cases were completed starting from the end of March of 2019 when the trade negotiation was witnessing positive result.

One thing I really appreciate is that I came to know from 1point3acres forum that I'm not alone in facing the AP issues. We established a Wechat group to share our experience and feelings and think about possible solutions. We wrote a letter to DOS and asked NAS to help transfer it. Many public media also reported our situation and recommended that students and scholars, especially those who are in the science projects in sensitive area, should pay extreme attention to the visa issues.

So here is a summary of the knowledge of the AP I gained this time. I hope it will be beneficial to you:
1.        The normal time for AP: 20~50 days
. From 1point 3acres bbs2.        Crucial time point: 30, 60, 90, 120 days
3.        support@ustraveldocs.com, support-china@ustraveldocs.com , feedback and inquiry are all processed by the consulate where you apply. You will get nothing but templated response.
4.        Calling the DOS will not help. It’s the same as checking the status in CEAC. Even though you asked them where your case is, they would say it’s in the consulate. However, it's not true.
5.        Senator's letter will help the consulate notice your case but won’t help in expediting AP. The consualte may or may not contact DOS about your case. If it's a long case, chance is greater.
6.        Contacting DOS is the most effective way in AP. However, the contact method is very limited: consulate, senator, school administrator, NAS.
7.        Be patient and positive. Make a travel or find a internship beforehand. Find the group of checkees.
8.        F-1 visa renewal can be done at Mexico or Canada where chances of getting checked is smaller than mainland China. Also, once you got checked, with your passport and I20, you can still go back to U.S. because of the special treaty between U.S. and the two countries. However, it’s not definite. Once your AP completed, you can use your effective visa for home visits.
9.        About getting passport: I chose the main CITIC bank in the consulate city. I received the issue of visa on Monday but didn’t get a message till Tuesday afternoon. However, my flight was on Tuesday night, so I asked the teller of the bank to contact the consulate to send over my visa. It took them approximately an hour and half to get my visa transferred. I got the passport three hours before my flight. So don’t expect the passport will arrive at night of the issue day or you might miss your flight.

感谢楼主分享自己的经历，我F1首签到今天被check已经44天了，这个心情很是理解。

有一点我想要纠正一下，上面的第八条：
8.  F-1 visa renewal can be done at Mexico or Canada where chances of getting checked is smaller than mainland China. Also, once you got checked, with your passport and I20, you can still go back to U.S. because of the special treaty between U.S. and the two countries. However, it’s not definite. Once your AP completed, you can use your effective visa for home visits.
楼主说的这个“special treaty”是Automatic visa revalidation，我仔细了解过这个政策，它要求在签证过期且没有在加拿大或者墨西哥申请新的签证，这样才可以持过期签证进入美国。像楼主说的在加拿大或者墨西哥申请新的签证被check然后拿护照和I20进入美国根据政策是做不到的。

埃文 发表于 2019-5-25 17:19
感谢楼主分享自己的经历，我F1首签到今天被check已经44天了，这个心情很是理解。

有一点我想要纠正一下 ...

对。原则上是这样。但是入境的时候，有的工作人员会注意不到你申请了新的签证，所以有人是这样“极限”入境的。可以说是一个灰色地带。
因为重新申请签证了而拒绝入境也是正当的，只不过就得强行回国等check了。

感谢楼主分享的经历，想必在现在的大环境下一定是个心力交瘁的四个月。不过还是恭喜楼主最终可以重返美国继续学业。
五月份我要F1首签了，希望只是普通的check就已经很好了。

为楼主点赞~

请问一下最后楼主defer过后是重新发新的i20吗？你是拿旧签证 + new i20入境吗？