URGENT Help Please!!!! F1 Renewal... Cannot return to U.S!

[pbastian]

My sister today applied for F1 renewal from Chennai and got the infamous 221 g Pink Letter saying further administrative processing reqd. She has completed her B.S program, and is going back to complete her Masters and PhD.

She was told by the first counter that her visa is approved, however the second counter collected "additional details" about her pending PhD program in Biomedical Engineering, and then issued her the letter saying "further administrative processing required under 221 G" and the letter says she has to wait 4-8 weeks...

Her classes and her research starts in 2 weeks, and she is scared that her funding will stop and she will lose this year and her M.S/PhD admission if she has to wait anything more than 2 weeks. We are under heavy stress and not sure where to go and what to do. ANy advice would be so much appreciated.

1) Can we get an emergency appointment again to plead our case again?
2) Is there a way we can get the passport back from them, as we already had the previous VISA going on till 2011. We probably shouldnt even have gone for stamping this time.

Thanks all.

[thomachan72]

Originally Posted by pbastian

My sister today applied for F1 renewal from Chennai and got the infamous 221 g Pink Letter saying further administrative processing reqd. She has completed her B.S program, and is going back to complete her Masters and PhD.

She was told by the first counter that her visa is approved, however the second counter collected "additional details" about her pending PhD program in Biomedical Engineering, and then issued her the letter saying "further administrative processing required under 221 G" and the letter says she has to wait 4-8 weeks...

Her classes and her research starts in 2 weeks, and she is scared that her funding will stop and she will lose this year and her M.S/PhD admission if she has to wait anything more than 2 weeks. We are under heavy stress and not sure where to go and what to do. ANy advice would be so much appreciated.

1) Can we get an emergency appointment again to plead our case again?
2) Is there a way we can get the passport back from them, as we already had the previous VISA going on till 2011. We probably shouldnt even have gone for stamping this time.

Thanks all.

These guys are cutting the very branch of tree they are sitting on. How foolish of them. Anyway try to answer the requirements as quick as possible. Mostly you might need the school officials to provide letters to the consulate. This is an unfortunate event but try to face it without too much panic. Contact the professor for letters etc fast.

[go_guy123]

Originally Posted by pbastian

My sister today applied for F1 renewal from Chennai and got the infamous 221 g Pink Letter saying further administrative processing reqd. She has completed her B.S program, and is going back to complete her Masters and PhD.

She was told by the first counter that her visa is approved, however the second counter collected "additional details" about her pending PhD program in Biomedical Engineering, and then issued her the letter saying "further administrative processing required under 221 G" and the letter says she has to wait 4-8 weeks...

Her classes and her research starts in 2 weeks, and she is scared that her funding will stop and she will lose this year and her M.S/PhD admission if she has to wait anything more than 2 weeks. We are under heavy stress and not sure where to go and what to do. ANy advice would be so much appreciated.

1) Can we get an emergency appointment again to plead our case again?
2) Is there a way we can get the passport back from them, as we already had the previous VISA going on till 2011. We probably shouldnt even have gone for stamping this time.

Thanks all.

Biology etc side needs special security clearence. Thats why this 221 (g)

[go_guy123]

Originally Posted by thomachan72

These guys are cutting the very branch of tree they are sitting on. How foolish of them. Anyway try to answer the requirements as quick as possible. Mostly you might need the school officials to provide letters to the consulate. This is an unfortunate event but try to face it without too much panic. Contact the professor for letters etc fast.

They are government employees and they follow the directive from top. In the era of greater security screening, Biology subject has greater background check. Ofcourse not all
cases are put through increased security.

[eyeswe]

I understand your situation or I think I do..

I know a classmate of mine had to go through something similar. For you to jump over the normal process within the consulate, you will have to get intervention from the highest level of government in the state where your college is located. If it is a state college, that much easier. My friend had the governor of the state send a letter to the applicable consulate . I know that he contacted the college for help when his case was stuck similarly. And they went right up to the governor. It helped that our university was in the capital city and the President of univ had extremely cordial relationship with the governor. Not sure if it was a similar security clearance, but it was immediately after 9/11.Talk to your international office (or whichever office deals with your I20's) and they should be able to help with some documentation as well. Finally, if you do not hustle, it will not move beyond the normal procedure times, that much I can assure you. Sorry I do not have further details of how he went through it.

[pbastian]

Thanks all for responding... though the situation remains the same, you guys validated some of the stuff that I was seeing in other posts and i think it s just bad luck on our part......

Also, I am contacting the school international office to see what help they can provide. Though my sister tells me they were not very helpful in the past....

Thanks again, and if you think of anything else that would help speed up the process, thanks for letting us know.

God Bless!

[shana04]

Originally Posted by pbastian

Thanks all for responding... though the situation remains the same, you guys validated some of the stuff that I was seeing in other posts and i think it s just bad luck on our part......

Also, I am contacting the school international office to see what help they can provide. Though my sister tells me they were not very helpful in the past....

Thanks again, and if you think of anything else that would help speed up the process, thanks for letting us know.

God Bless!

As per my knowledge first thing when you go for visa stamping is they cancel your previous visa.

so do not get back the passport and try to answer what is required in 221G

good luck

[feedfront]

Originally Posted by eyeswe

I understand your situation or I think I do..

I know a classmate of mine had to go through something similar. For you to jump over the normal process within the consulate, you will have to get intervention from the highest level of government in the state where your college is located. If it is a state college, that much easier. My friend had the governor of the state send a letter to the applicable consulate . I know that he contacted the college for help when his case was stuck similarly. And they went right up to the governor. It helped that our university was in the capital city and the President of univ had extremely cordial relationship with the governor. Not sure if it was a similar security clearance, but it was immediately after 9/11.Talk to your international office (or whichever office deals with your I20's) and they should be able to help with some documentation as well. Finally, if you do not hustle, it will not move beyond the normal procedure times, that much I can assure you. Sorry I do not have further details of how he went through it.

eyeswe is right. Only help you can get from her school. Any letter from highest authorithy will help otherwise, Consulate office will take its own time to complete 'administrative processing' (4-6 weeks minimum). Good Luck.

[maddipati1]

OP,

first thing to do is get your passport back and check to see if you are lucky enough that they didn't cancel ur old VISA. if so, i read a case of some one came with old visa while new visa app was pending. Read this thread for an idea of how common this has been.

221g at Chennai - Topic Powered by Infopop


Any one working for Bio / Chem / Defense companies should be very careful before leaving. If they are going for stamping in India or even Mex/Can should be prepared to stay there for minimum 2/3 and max 2/3 months in worst case. that's kinda norm. Its ironic, these Bio guys are doing amazing research that will keep US an innovation leader of the world and these guys need to suffer more than the other guys. But its understandable(but still doens't need to be this bad) from CIS side coz these jobs are highly sensitive, for example, my wife cultures(grows) cancer cells in the lab routinely, so lot of the stuff these guys do is highly risky for US security.

[pbastian]

Originally Posted by maddipati1

OP,

first thing to do is get your passport back and check to see if you are lucky enough that they didn't cancel ur old VISA. if so, i read a case of some one came with old visa while new visa app was pending. Read this thread for an idea of how common this has been.

221g at Chennai - Topic Powered by Infopop


Any one working for Bio / Chem / Defense companies should be very careful before leaving. If they are going for stamping in India or even Mex/Can should be prepared to stay there for minimum 2/3 and max 2/3 months in worst case. that's kinda norm. Its ironic, these Bio guys are doing amazing research that will keep US an innovation leader of the world and these guys need to suffer more than the other guys. But its understandable(but still doens't need to be this bad) from CIS side coz these jobs are highly sensitive, for example, my wife cultures(grows) cancer cells in the lab routinely, so lot of the stuff these guys do is highly risky for US security.

This makes a lot of sense. Thx.

Everyone, thanks for all the help here and for all the advice. I just wanted to circle back and report that we did finally get the visa issued, it took around 4 weeks. Thx again!

[eyeswe]

Good for you.. Thanks for sharing