UPDATE ON IMMIGRANT VISA PROCESSING
PROCEDURES AT THE NATIONAL VISA CENTER
Prepared by Kathleen Campbell Walker and Jonathan Ginsburg
of the AILA/VO Liaison Committee
This provides an update and some context to recent changes in immigrant visa
("IV") processing procedures at NVC. For want of adequate contemporaneous
explanations from the Department of State ("DOS"), it has taken us some time to
piece together the following confusing material.
Based on a proposed rule published Oct. 28, 1999 (64 Fed. Reg. 58004), the Department of
State ("DOS") provided notice on September 8, 2000, of its intent to begin
designating certain posts for payment of the immigrant visa processing and affidavit of
support fees in the U.S. (65 FR 54598). Simultaneously, DOS published a notice to the
effect that it would designate additional such posts over the next two to three years
based on the size of a post's overall operations beginning with the next largest (65 FR
54412). DOS ultimately stayed the effective date of these new payment procedures to
January 1, 2001 (65 FR 68243, Dec. 14, 2000).
Then on December 19, 2000, DOS issued a telegram on Immigrant Visa Reform identifying ten
initial "alpha" posts for this new U.S. fee payment procedure. On October 1 and
December 5, 2001, DOS listed additional alpha posts subject to the payment procedures (66
FR 49995, 66 FR 63278). In October, the African posts were added as alpha posts, and in
December, the Indian posts and Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam were added. Per the telegram,
other posts would be "beta" posts. DOS required alpha post cases to be sent to
NVC with the $260 immigrant visa processing and $50 affidavit of support review fees paid
via a lock box procedure in St. Louis. The AILA DOS Liaison minutes of October 30, 2000,
March 22, 2001, and October 26, 2001, posted on AILA InfoNet contain further information
on these procedures.
As of January 1, 2002, there appears to be two types of alpha posts: those for which the
NVC assists in the appointment scheduling process and those for which the NVC does not. We
call the former posts "alpha plus" or "alpha appointment" posts. The
latter posts are just plain alpha posts. All non-alpha posts remain beta posts.
With apologies for the delay in providing this information, we have been attempting to
clarify the distinct procedures associated with the three types of posts and the related
documentary requirements. At our March 7, 2002 Liaison Meeting in D.C., we will address
further questions on these issues and the difficulty we have reconciling the seeming trend
towards designation of alpha and alpha plus posts with the December 18, 2001 DOS notice
regarding a change in the packet system for immigrant visa processing (document No.
01121832 on AILA InfoNet), and the December 19, 2001 DOS notice addressing procedures for
pre-screening IV cases (No. 01121932 on AILA InfoNet). The latter suggests that posts will
be able to choose to be alpha posts, alpha appointment posts, beta posts and yet another
type that uses travel or volunteer agency prescreening to ensure that an applicant is
"documentarily qualified." Obviously, we would be concerned if the role of
travel or volunteer agencies amounts to what would be considered legal representation in
the U.S.
The Visa Office has just provided us with the following clarification respecting the three
existing types of processing procedures for posts:
1. Beta posts. These posts process IV cases in the traditional manner through
NVC, which sends applicants the Instruction Package for Immigrant Visa Applicants
(formerly Packet 3) and instructs them to notify post directly when ready to process.
2. Alpha posts. NVC sends the Instruction Package for Immigrant Visa Applicants (formerly
Packet 3) and affidavit of support form to the applicant, with instructions to return them
to NVC via the St. Louis address upon payment of the $260 IV and $50 affidavit of support
review fees to that address. NVC performs a clerical review of documents submitted to
determine if the case is complete (e.g., all 3 years' tax forms present, I-864 signed and
notarized, if applicable, DS-230 properly completed, fees paid), then forwards the case to
post. The post makes the IV appointment. NVC uses this process for Manila, Santo Domingo,
Georgetown, Port au Prince, Guangzhou, Bogota, Ho Chi Minh City, New Delhi, Mumbai and
Chennai. A modified version of the process is used for Ciudad Juarez (Basically, the
affidavit of support process is not as thorough for Ciudad cases).
3. Alpha appointment posts ("alpha plus") posts. NVC does the same processing as
for alpha posts above plus the appointment scheduling. In addition, for Alpha appointment
posts only, NVC compiles original civil documents (or certified copies) and police
certificates. NVC reports numerically controlled cases as documentarily qualified, obtains
a visa allocation number, and then sends the appointment letter to the applicant. The
applicant completes the physical examination and appears for the interview at post. The
original civil documents are returned to the applicant at time of interview at post. The
process is in place for Montreal, Tirana, and all posts on the continent of Africa:
Abidjan, Cote D'Ivoire; Accra, Ghana; Addis Ababa, Ethiopia; Algiers, Algeria;
Antananarivo, Madagascar; Cairo, Egypt; Cotonou, Benin; Casablanca, Morocco; Dakar,
Senegal; Dar-es-Salaam, Tanzania; Djibouti, Djibouti; Harare, Zimbabwe; Johannesburg,
South Africa; Kinshasa, Democratic Republic of the Congo; Lagos, Nigeria; Libreville,
Gabon; Lilongwe, Malawi; Lome, Togo; Lusaka, Zambia; Monrovia, Liberia; Nairobi, Kenya;
Niamey, Niger; Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso; Praia, Cape Verde Islands; Tunis, Tunisia; and
Yaounde, Cameroon.
NVC claims it does not determine whether civil documents are authentic; rather,
its role is limited to ensuring that the right civil documents, in original or certified
form, are in the case file. If a post advises NVC that it needs the "long form"
of a birth certificate to process a case and the "short" form is provided, NVC
will contact the applicant or designated agent to request the required version of the
civil document.
We are working to clarify what constitutes a "certified" copy of a document. We
are gravely concerned about the requirement that original civil documents be sent to NVC
under any circumstances. Finally, the most recent version of the alpha-related
instructions from NVC calls for the applicant to include in the mailing to St. Louis a
"completed and signed Instructions for Immigrant Visa Applicants," but the
instruction form itself lacks a signature line, and NVC informs us that cases will not be
delayed if this particular sheet arrives unsigned.
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