H4 Visa is in pending at US Consulate, Chennai

[tshaalan]

Not Surprised

Dear friend, I am not surprised. When my wife went to apply for an H4 visa at the Istanbul Consulate, the officer asked her the following:

Q: Is your husband a US Citizen?
A: No, he is not, if he was I would not be applying for an H4 visa.

Q: Do you have children together with your husband?
A: No, we dont have children.
Q: Why not?

So dont worry about it my friend, those consular officers ask all kinds of wacked questions that dont make any sense

Hi,

found this forum as a good one to discuss H4 visa issues.

I would like to introduce myself as ‘Raja’, working in USA on H1 visa. Currently I’m facing a problem in getting H4 visa to my daughters. Here are the details.

I have been working in USA for the last 3.5 years. My wife came here and joined me, on H4 visa, 1.5 years ago. But at that time, we left our daughters (9 years and 7 years) back in India with my parents. Now we planned to bring our children to US.

Status:

Coming to my status, I have my H1 visa revalidated in US itself and still I have valid H1 visa for one more year. My wife’s H4 visa is also revalidated in US and she also has still valid H4 visa for one more year. I have been working in the same project and for the same Employer and client, almost for the last two years. As a result, I don’t have any break in my pay stubs for the last two years. I filed IT returns for the last 3 years, 2000, 2001 and 2002 as I came to US in July’ 2000.

Coming to my children, they didn’t get their H4 visa stamping, initially along with my wife, as they didn’t have their passports by that time.

First trial to get H4:

I sent out all the required documents to get the H4 visa stamped. My father accompanied my daughters to the US Consulate in Chennai for an appointment, as my wife and I are staying in US. They attended at the Consulate on October 9th, 2003 as per the scheduled appointment.

US Consulate, Chennai refused to grant H4 visa to my children. They issued a letter stating that the visa is refused under Section 221(g) of the Immigration and Nationality Act (INA). They asked us to provide the following further documentary information.

1. Original job offer letter from the petitioner.
2. Interior and exterior photos of the H/L worker at work.
3. Interior and exterior photos of the H/L worker at home.
4. Principal’s certified or notarized state and federal tax returns for the last (3) years including 2002.
5. W2 forms for all people employed by the petitioner.
6. Copy of deed, mortgage or rental agreement for residential property in the U.S.
7. Mother or father or both to come for picking up children.

Second trial to get H4:

As they asked either mother or father should come to pick the children, I sent my wife to India along with the entire additional documentation. My Employer sent a confidential cover comprising W2 forms of all the employees. This time, I attached pay stubs of all the months for the last 1.5 year.

My wife attended at the US Consulate, Chennai on December 22nd, 2003 along with my two daughters. This time they took all the documentation and gave back the passports. They mentioned in their letter that our application for an H-4 visa had been referred to their Fraud Prevention Unit for additional verification. They told that they would mail back to us and then we need to act accordingly like sending passport by mail etc. for stamping. It’s been almost a month. But we didn’t get back anything from the US Consulate.

My wife has her return tickets reserved in the 1st week of February’2004. Now we need to cancel our tickets, if we don’t get back anything from the Consulate before that time. We are clueless of how much time they are going to take for inquiry.

The questions that they asked my wife during interview are weird though. For example:

Q: Why didn’t you take your children along with you?
A: At that time, they didn’t get their passports.

Q: Why do you want to take them now?
A: As the health of my in-laws is not good enough to take care of my children.

Q: Who is important to you? Is your husband or children?
A: Both are important to me.

Q: Why can’t you stay here in India, with your children?
A: I need to accompany my husband.


This is the entire story happened in my case. Is there any thing that we can do now? Does anybody has any idea of how much time are they going to take for inquiry for the cases referred to ‘Fraud Prevention Unit’? Can we expedite the process in any way?



Thanks,
~ Raja