B1/B2 sent to administrative processing: what to do?

Key answer

Wait: the chats report B1/B2 processing from weeks to several years (the chat record is 3.5 years, then a 3-year visa). Another visa is not issued while a check is open - it joins the queue. After 6 to 10 months some file a mandamus; letters to the consulate and a senator cost nothing but rarely speed things up.

Community answers

The answers below are translated from the original Russian - the language of the community chats.

A second visa is not issued while a check is open: an L-1 applicant in Madrid was told to wait for the B1/B2 check in Berlin to finish and to write to them once it had.
Even after a successful check the border can keep stopping you: "formally a red flag lights up, there is nothing we can do", border officers told one member.
A visa can also end in revocation: after a six-week check a member got a 3-year visa, used it twice, and a year later received the "happy letter" cancelling it.

The answers are anonymized community experience from the public chats, not legal advice. Officers may decide similar cases differently.

Sources

State Department: administrative processing

All questions on: Consulate and interview All questions on: Process and timelines

B1/B2 sent to administrative processing: what to do?

Community answers

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