I want to figure out why some people get stuck in administrative review for a year or longer. Citizenship of certain countries, ties to companies under sanctions, social media posts where people celebrated annexations and stuff like that? There must be some common patterns among those who end up stuck for so long.
listen, there are patterns but they’re not always obvious. from what I’ve seen — yes, citizenship plays a role; certain countries pretty consistently have longer waits. but sometimes someone from a “simple” country also gets stuck just because they worked in a field that’s considered sensitive. and social media — well, that’s a total lottery, nobody knows for sure how deep they dig)
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To be honest, there are no transparent criteria and there won’t be — when I looked into this I realized that even lawyers just guess. Citizenship by itself doesn’t send you for screening, but it does lengthen it, that’s true. What actually triggers it are the field of work, connections to certain organizations, and sometimes it’s totally unclear what. By the way, there was a pretty good article on the forum about 221(g) 🏛 Административная проверка 221(g): вам не отказали, но визу не дали — it explains that this is not a denial but a pause/hold; many people confuse the two.
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I have an acquaintance who got stuck for eight months and still didn’t understand why — it looked like ordinary marketing, no sensitive areas, but she once worked at a company that turned out to have some connections. The most frustrating part is that nobody explains anything to you; you just sit there guessing. If I were in the shoes of those who are stuck, I wouldn’t try to find the logic — I’d ask a lawyer whether it’s possible to speed things up through a congressman, although maybe it works differently now.
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Long story short, the only things that are more-or-less predictable are fields of work — anything related to nuclear (ядерка), biotech, aerospace, and certain IT areas — there you’re almost guaranteed to be put through a security check. After that it’s a lottery — citizenship lengthens the timelines but doesn’t trigger anything by itself, and ties to companies under sanctions can surface even if you haven’t worked there for a long time. About the congressman — it helps, but not like it used to: now they can only send an inquiry and get a formal reply that the case is “in process.” If I were someone who’s stuck, I’d file a mandamus petition through a lawyer if it’s been more than a year — I’ve seen that sometimes move the case forward.
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Yes, that’s exactly it — opacity is the main problem here. I remember one guy waited more than a year; then it turned out they’d gotten hung up on an old workplace he himself had already forgotten about. If you’re being checked now — hang in there, most of them still end up with a positive result, it’s just that nerves aren’t made of steel, of course )
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The hardest part about this waiting is that you can’t do anything — you just sit there refreshing CEAC every day. When I was dealing with my rejection, at least I understood what exactly was wrong, but here people aren’t even told what’s going on — it’s really draining. If anyone’s stuck, one tip: don’t read the forums where everyone scares each other with statistics; you’d be better off spending that time on something useful, although I didn’t follow that advice myself, of course)
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A lawyer friend once said something interesting - internally they don’t so much look at one specific reason as at the combination of factors, and nobody knows the threshold for that combination. So citizenship plus field of work plus some former employer - each on its own is OK, but together it’s already a trigger. As for the congressman - I wouldn’t overestimate it, they can really only send an inquiry, and after that…
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I wrote about this here
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