When a visa applicant applies for a visa to the U.S. Consulate and they provide documentation and/or information that makes the visa officer suspicious, the officer will issue 221(g) (Administrative Processing) and refer the case to the Kentucky Consular Center’s Fraud Prevention Unit. The purpose of this unit is to research more on the documents provided by the employee and the petitioner.

What does the Visa Fraud Prevention Unit do? Why do U.S consulates take too much time to take a decision on 221 G cases?

The Fraud Prevention Unit will attempt to contact the party in question to verify the information and then relay that response to the visa officer so that they can approve or deny the application. This process can take months and causes delays in the application process and often times, the applicant has no idea that this is happening. This is reason why administrative processing takes too much time.

How are the U.S. Consulate Visa Officers using this Unit?

Recently, visa officers in India have increased their use of the fraud prevention unit as there is a substantial increase in the number of communications from the fraud unit where the fraud unit has tried to contact them or their clients.

The most common occurrence is where the visa officer feels that the letter that was provided by the applicant at the interview is fraudulent and the visa officer will have the fraud unit follow up with the letter writer, whether that is the employer, a vendor or the end-client.

How do they Investigate?

The fraud unit will send an email or even call the writer and ask them to verify the contents of the letter. In the case of a client letter or vendor letter, the fraud unit will ask about the following:

• Relationship with the petitioning company
• How does the company want to utilize the applicant’s services?
• If the company intends to utilize the applicant’s services, the fraud unit will check if the letter was on the company letterhead and whether the writer did in fact write the letter.

Once the person responds to the fraud unit, it takes about 2 months to get a response from the consulate.

What are the Problems Faced during this Investigation?

Unless the person who wrote the letter is expecting an email from the fraud unit, they may miss the email or their spam filter may grab it before they even see it.

We have found that if there is no response provided, the project for that employer is blacklisted and every applicant that tries to apply for that same project/client will receive a denial on the spot. 

Tips for Avoiding Problems during the Investigation:

Tip 1:

Visa applicants and their employers must warn the person whose contact information is on the letter that they may receive an email from the fraud unit and that they need to respond to it in a timely fashion.

Tip 2:

When an applicant is given a 221g, they should immediately contact their employer and any other party for which they provided a letter on behalf of to the visa officer and request that they keep an eye out for any emails or calls.

Tip 3:

Further, we would suggest to provide that contact (The person who gave the letter) with another copy of the letter that they provided so that they have that when they respond to an inquiry since it may have been a few months since they last reviewed it.

This is a Guest Blog Post from James K. Gotcher, Attorney at Law, Global Immigration Partners.  H1B wiki would like to thank James for providing this valuable information.