I went to the U.S. embassy recently?

Question

and applied to a TOURIST visa to visit the US.

I am from Lebanon, but I applied from London because I study here.

After the interview, the consular officer told me "we need several weeks to issue you a visa" then he immediately corrected it and said "to decide whether to issue you a visa"

and gave me a paper:

"Your visa application requires additional administrative processing before a visa can be issued. This processing cannot be waived and we cannot issue a visa until the processing is complete.

When the administrative processing is complete, a decision on your visa application will be made and we will advise you by mail. ....."

Given the fact that everything I wrote in my application and everything I said in the interview is absolutely true,

and that I was never involved in anything illegal in the past,

is there anything should I worry about concerning the issuance of my visa? will it be issued for sure? and When approximately?

THANKS

Answer 1

SMS is correct as far as she goes.  In addition, there could be a similar name and/or date of birth in the computer system that refers to a criminal or terrorist suspect; the consular officer has to request a check as to whether or not it might be you.  Once the request for the check is sent, there is nothing the officer can do except wait for a response, which might come quickly, slowly, or not at all.

Answer 2

Since I have just completed an internship at a US consulate, I think I may be able to help.

There are a lot of reasons why you may have received this response. One thing I notice, though, is that you are from Lebanon but applying for a visa in London. Usually, they encourage people to apply for their visa in the country in which they are from. One of the important criteria for getting a visa is being able to show that you will not stay illegally in the US instead of returning home. They may have trouble believing that you will have a reason to go back to London or Lebanon. (Since I don't know anything about you, I can't really say.)

I wasn't told anything about this, but I saw a list of countries that (I THINK), if you are from one of those places you will require extra processing or something like that.

Once again, there are a lot of reasons and no one can say if you will get one for sure. If you are denied, you can always ask them why and they will tell you. Then, you can apply again if you can fix the "problem." Good luck.

Answer 3

No, I don't think so. I've been issued a visa recently. As long as you submitted everything they need, there's nothing to worry about. As you have said you've never been involved in any illegal activity and everything you provided them are facts. So, all you have to do right now is wait. At most, I believe, two weeks. Mine arrived after three days. My interview was July 30. Good luck :)