Advice for Dealing with Long SAO Waits

Parying Mantis

As I mentioned in yesterday’s post, nonimmigrant visa applicants are now waiting for 12-14 weeks for Visas Mantis security advisory opinions (SAOs). This SAO is a security check to ensure that science and technology students and professionals seeking U.S. visas aren’t likely to try to illegally export U.S. technologies. These waits are terribly disruptive to business and universities.

Our firm has updated the advice we give to companies on (a) how it may be possible to persuade the Consulate that no SAO is required; (b) what documents and information to prepare for an applicant likely to be subject to an SAO; and (c) how to provide to the Consulate information about future planned trips during the SAO validity period so that visa applications during that period may be subject to merely “postcheck” which won’t delay visa issuance rather than new SAOs.

You can find our memo here.

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