I can’t figure out what a “waiver” means in relation to a visa. I googled it, but the explanations I found were pretty general — I still don’t get the gist. Is it somehow related to administrative processing (administrative review), or is it a completely separate matter?
well, look, a waiver is basically a request to have some ground for a visa denial “forgiven” for you. for example, if there’s some entry ban, you can ask for an exception. it has nothing to do with administrative processing, those are completely different things. don’t worry, once you start digging into your specific case everything will become clearer )
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Yeah, that’s exactly what they wrote here. A waiver is when you have some kind of obstacle to your visa and you ask them to waive it — like, “yes, technically I don’t qualify, but here’s why I should be allowed.” It’s not related to administrative processing at all, don’t mix them up) If you don’t have a specific ground for refusal, you probably don’t need a waiver, so don’t psych yourself out ahead of time.
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Long story short — a waiver is a separate mechanism for when you’ve already been denied for a specific reason and you file a petition to have that denial waived. When there’s a refusal they usually note whether you’re waiver-eligible or not, and if you are you can try. Administrative processing (“админка”) is just an additional check — there’s no denial there, you just wait for them to review. By the way, there’s a thread on the forum that breaks down 221(g) and explains this pretty well, check it out if you’re interested. If I were you, I wouldn’t worry about waivers until there’s an actual denial.
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Everything’s already been explained correctly here, I’ll just add from my experience — when I got a denial on my first petition I also started googling everything and mixing things up: waivers, admin processing, appeals. It turned out I didn’t need a waiver at all; I just had a weak petition. So first figure out whether you even have grounds for a denial, and only then think about the mechanisms — although maybe things work differently now.
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Basically everything’s already been explained correctly, but there’s one point — waivers are different: it’s not a single procedure but several, depending on the section/ground of the denial. For example, 212(d)(3) is one thing, and the I-601 is something else entirely, and they’re filed differently. If I were you, I wouldn’t dive deeper into this topic until there’s a specific denial with a specific section, because without that it’s still unclear which exact waiver applies.
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see, dimka_law is right — there are different types. when i looked into it after my denial, i also thought “well, waiver and waiver,” but it turned out to be a whole zoo of different forms and procedures. you really shouldn’t dive into it until you have a specific piece of paper with a specific article; otherwise you’ll just clutter your head with unnecessary stuff.
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Lina, главное — не делай как я: не начинай гуглить всё подряд заранее, иначе потом неделю будешь разбираться в том, что тебе вообще не пригодится. Если хочешь хотя бы понять разницу между отказом и админкой, на форуме есть статья про 221(g) — там нормально разложено без юридического языка.
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You know what ultimately calmed me down — when the lawyer just said, “forget about the waiver, your situation is different.” Before that I’d spent two days reading forums and had convinced myself there was a problem that didn’t exist. So if there’s no explicit refusal citing a specific article, just breathe out and don’t waste your time on it.
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