Adminstrative Processing for O-1 and P-1 Visas. Managing Member, Sherrod Seward Esq., Made the News!
Adminstrative Processing for O-1 and P-1 Visas. Managing Member, Sherrod Seward Esq., Made the News!
Last week, Sherrod was interviewed by Tim Spears who is a respected reporter at Spectrum News TV in Charlotte, NC. Both gentlemen are avid boxing and combat sports fans and came together this summer to discuss boxing in the state of North Carolina. During this meeting, Sherrod discussed the recent problem he and other employment-based immigration lawyers are facing with the black hole known as administrative processing. This topic caught Tim Spears’s attention and the curiosity turned into a great story that ran on local news channels.
Consular officers at US embassies and consulates around the world can place visa seekers in administrative processing status instead of approving or denying a visa at their interview. Almost all nonimmigrant visa applicants must attend an in-person interview after their visa is approved to make sure that applicants’ profiles match up with the visa they pursued and are a low-security risk. When the applicant is placed into administrative processing, they become subject to increased investigation by the State Department to determine if there are any issues. Issues that can cause an applicant to be placed into administrative processing include past crimes, connections to organized crime/terrorism, questionable behavior on social media, doping for sports athletes, and other issues.
And occasionally, “nothing at all” chimes in Sherrod Seward.
Many nonimmigrant visa lawyers refer to administrative processing as “the black hole” because there is little an attorney can do when a client is subjected to the status.
If an applicant is denied a visa at a consular interview, there are several steps a lawyer can take to remedy the situation such as submit a waiver or appeal the decision to a superior office. However, in administrative processing there really are no legal remedies available to the attorney to demand a decision on the additional fact-finding. There are steps that can be taken after a year has passed by filing a mandamus lawsuit in federal court. Unfortunately, for most athletes and entertainers, waiting a year for work authorization can be fatal to their entire careers.
The process of administering the process falls with the State Department and usually not the Department of Homeland Security. In practice, we find that there are sometimes lapses in the exchange of information between the State Department and the consular officers, and administrative processing cases can sit on desks without being addressed in a timely fashion. Furthermore, there is not a lot of public information on how or why administrative processing happens in the first place.
For administrative processing cases that are not over a year old, inquiries from congressional officials are the most helpful option.
. Almost all United States senators and representatives have someone in their office who serves as an immigration liaison. These persons can make an official inquiry to the consulate on letterhead that asks about the status of cases. Admittedly, these inquiries can become difficult to obtain due to the busy schedules of the officers and also the current state of United States Citizenship and Immigration Services (“USCIS”) with understaffing and increased pressure to deny cases. This is in addition to the current suspension of many of the most common nonimmigrant visa categories until December, which leaves thousands of companies struggling to staff hundreds of thousands of highly skilled positions.
Our law firm is actively recruiting former congressional immigration liaisons to address the growing practice of placing approved applicants under administrative processing. The idea is that we would be able to establish rapport with other immigration liaisons around the country to obtain consistent assistance with not only administrative processing, but also expediting appointments and obtaining waivers from Custom and Border Patrol officers at points of entry.
To find out more about our consular practice and our new congressional inquiry capabilities, please do not hesitate to contact us at 310-209-8545 or info@oaklg.com.