Attorney Murthy Reports : Chennai Consulate Dec 2004
Posted Jan 07, 2005
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On December 20, 2004, I had another opportunity to visit the U.S. Consulate in Chennai, India and to meet with senior officers of Chennai consular team. I had lengthy discussions with the present Chief, Nonimmigrant Visa (NIV) Section, Nyda Budig, as well as the Chief of the Immigrant Visa (IV) Section at Chennai, Robert Chavez. I was delighted to meet with both of them, as well as with Michael Thomas, Chief, Consular Section. I particularly appreciate the time and accommodation they provided in their busy schedules during the week of the Christmas holidays.
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The consular team at Chennai has grown considerably in size. The additional personnel are needed because of the increased workload; particularly the mandatory personal interviews for almost all visa applicants. During the meeting, we discussed various issues regarding both NIVs and IVs and of concern to many clients of The Law Office of Sheela Murthy, as well as our MurthyDotCom and MurthyBulletin readers. The highlights of our discussion are summarized below.
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NIV Issues
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B-1/B-2 Visas
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In planning visits to the United States for business and/or pleasure on B-1/B-2 visas, many fail in the application process to document their cases to the satisfaction of the consular officer. Even when individuals come prepared with all the relevant documents, a denial under the common ground of immigrant intent is still possible. The consular officer interviews the individual and develops an impression of the person’s ties to the home country, also looking for any potential fraud indicators. Ultimately, a decision is made based on the information available at the time of the interview.
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Generally, if one's visa has been denied, and that person is asked to reappear at the Consulate for an interview, it is a positive sign. Ultimately, however, the decision whether to grant the relevant visa is always at the discretion of the consular officer.
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H1B Visas
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Consular officers tend to request a revocation of the USCIS approved petition in cases where there is fraud or perceived fraud. If the visa applicant can establish with documentary or other evidence that, in fact, there has not been any fraud, then that case can be brought to the Consulate's attention for visa issuance.
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The consular officers made it clear that their goal is to issue visas for qualified applicants. Considering the high volume of cases at Chennai, which is the highest H1B-processing consular post in the world, occasional mistakes are unavoidable. The officers indicated that if they have erred in requesting a revocation or otherwise, they are amenable to correction. The attitude of the team there shows a high level of professionalism and willingness to change their earlier decisions when warranted.
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Immigrant Issues
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Robert Chavez, Chief of the IV Section at Chennai, mentioned that the U.S. Consulate at Chennai has been processing about 260 nurse cases each month due to the retrogression of EB3 priority dates for nationals of India. This retrogression resulting in the lack of immediately-available visa numbers will impact the ability of registered nurses from India to enter the United States as permanent residents in a reasonable timeframe. This will only add to the recognized problem of a severe shortage of nurses in the U.S.
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Attorney Certified I-140s Possible!
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Mr. Chavez also mentioned that the Consulate would be willing to process cases for employment-based immigrant visas using attorney-certified I-140s. This is true particularly where there is a need to process the cases on an expedited basis, due to priority date retrogression and similar urgent matters. This is based on a September 2000 U.S. Department of State cable.
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Nonimmigrant and Immigrant Waivers
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We discussed the issue of filing the waiver at the USCIS in Delhi for all India-related cases. The Consulate will follow the decision of the USCIS in most cases, unless they are aware of a particular reason not to concur in that decision. These cases are time intensive and the Consulate does not process many such cases.
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If the Consulate errs in assigning a fraud or misrepresentation finding or other problem to a case, it is easier for them to make the correction in the database so that the applicant may be issued the visa, if appropriate. It is helpful to keep in mind that the consular officers have a heavy workload and are willing to be available to reconsider their earlier visa refusals if circumstances have changed or, for example, if new documents are available that were previously unavailable.
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All in all, it was another productive meeting and our notes in this article should help anyone applying for either an NIV or IV at Chennai; particularly when read together with our earlier, three-part series of articles from my last meeting with the Consulate. Those articles, Attorney Murthy's Consular Meeting in Chennai, Part 1, Part 2, and Part 3 are available on MurthyDotCom. Again, we at The Law Office of Sheela Murthy appreciate the generosity of those Consulate officials for meeting with me.
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