Case Study: a Congressional Inquiry Made all the Difference for a U.S. Visa Applicant

When a visa application gets stuck at a U.S. Consulate, there are many strategies to consider to get it unstuck:

• Filing an inquiry with the Consulate
• Escalating that inquiry within the State Department
• Requesting an advisory opinion from the State Department’s legal counsel (LegalNet)
• Requesting assistance from the American Immigration Lawyers Association (AILA) liaison with the agency
• Filing a lawsuit if the agency is acting in disregard of the law or failing to act where required by the law

Today, a Congressional inquiry with the U.S. Consulate made all the difference. The case involved a fiancée visa applicant required to submit a China police certificate. She applied for the certificate, but the local police refused to issue it, explaining in writing that that she never had the particular immigration status in China entitling her under local rules to a police certificate. We asked the Consulate to waive the police certificate requirement on the basis that it is unobtainable. Despite multiple inquiries, the consular officer did not address our waiver request but merely told the applicant to provide the police certificate, which was impossible to do. We grew frustrated when attempts to escalate the inquiry to consular management were likewise unsuccessful.

So, we contacted a member of Congress in whose district the applicant’s U.S. citizen fiancée resides. We provided them with a copy of the legal memo we had drafted explaining why the police certificate requirement should be waived. The congressional office kindly agreed to relay our inquiry to the Consulate, asking why the waiver was not granted. As before, the Consulate responded but avoided answering our question. With our urging, the congressional office agreed to again insist that the Consulate answer the question. This time, the Consulate finally admitted that the officer had not even considered our waiver request because the officer believed they lacked the authority to do so. With this information, we prepared another legal memo explaining why the officer was erroneous–they did have authority to review and adjudicate our waiver request. The congressional office forwarded that to the Consulate, and the Consulate quickly agreed to grant the waiver.

This is a textbook example of how Consulates, flooded with inquiries from applicants and their counsel, sometimes give short shrift to such inquiries. In that situation, a congressional inquiry may be more likely to get a meaningful reply. To be successful with a congressional inquiry, it is important for counsel to research and draft strong legal arguments for the congressional office to forward to the Consulate.

For more information, see Making a Congressional Inquiry for Help with Your Immigration Case. Or, for help devising a strategy for your case, Schedule a Consultation with our law firm.