A 221(g) visa refusal. If you have heard about these or if you have received one
I know that that is a scary thing to get, a 221(g) refusal, and that is definitely not what you want
to have happen at your visa interview. I'd like to explain what it means
and for those of you who aren't aware, again, I just want to go over exactly what is a 221(g) refusal
and what are the options that are available if you receive a 221(g).
Basically, a 221(g), and I put the information here on the screen so you can see, it's a visa refusal
under 221(g) of the Immigration Nationality Act means that the
applicant didn't establish that they were eligible for the visa.
The Immigration and Nationality Act is the list of immigration laws
and 221(g) is part of the immigration laws and it basically says that a consular officer cannot give
a person a visa. They cannot approve their case if the person isn't eligible to receive the visa.
If you receive a 221(g), again that's not something that you want to receive, it means
that your visa was refused and typically that this happens in extreme circumstances.
The person might not be eligible because they lied on a prior tourist visa application and the
consular officer discovered that. That would be fraud and misrepresentation. Perhaps the person had
overstayed a visa previously or another reason you could receive one of these is that the US
consular officer at the embassy decided that they don't believe you
have a real relationship and they want more evidence of your relationship. In general,
the consular officer doesn't really have to make a decision on your relationship.
That already happens at the first part of your case with the fiancé visa, the I-129f
or the I-130 petition. USCIS decides you have a real relationship. But if the consular officer
suspects fraud and that the relationship isn't real, they would give you a 221(g) notice.
What I had just posted earlier is that means that
the consular officer has decided that it doesn't appear that you are eligible.
What are the next steps? What are your options if you receive one of these?
Sometimes, there are certain problems that a person can have in their immigration history
that there isn't a solution. There isn't a way to overcome the problem.
There are some types of issues, like I said fraud and misrepresentation, time in the United States
without documents, things like that that have a special waiver. A person could apply for a
waiver if they meet certain requirements to ask for forgiveness. If it was your relationship,
they would give you an opportunity to provide more evidence. With that being said, if you're
given an opportunity to provide more evidence and you're given this opportunity to prove
your case, to prove you're eligible, it's really important that you respond properly because if you
don't, then they can just flat out deny your case and then that is the end of the road.
For some people, there might be an option to refile and for others, there wouldn't be an option so
it's very important if you receive one of these that you take it very seriously. If you don't have
an immigration attorney, I would highly recommend that you find an immigration attorney to be able
to help you properly respond to give you the highest chances of success. With the 221(g), there
there are some times that an officer would give you this because maybe it's not quite as serious
as not proving that you have a real relationship but there might be some documents missing.
If you go to your interview and you didn't bring all of the required documents for example
for your affidavit of support, if you didn't have the proper financial documents or you didn't bring
the right civil documents, they could give you this as well. They could give you a 221(g) and give
you an opportunity to provide those additional documents to be able to approve your visa.
In general a 221(g) refusal is a very serious thing and you need to
make sure you take that situation seriously and that you're very meticulous in your response.
I hope that that helps explain the 221(g). We've had a lot of people
asking what does this mean and so again, I'll post it. This is it just basically
means that the consular officer decided that they don't believe you are eligible.