U.S. immigration law presumes that all applicants for non-immigrant visas are intending immigrants. In order for applicants to overcome this presumption they must convince the interviewing consular officer that they intend to return to their home country after a short visit to the United States. In order to establish this, all applicants must show compelling personal and economic ties to their country of residence. This is generally established by the documentation of family, social, employment, economic or other ties. Please note that, providing this information to the consular officer does not guarantee that a visa will be issued.

If you would like my office to follow up on the status of an overseas visa denial, please send a brief request of assistance including:

1. Name of Visitor (as it appears in their passport)
2. Date of Birth of Visitor
3. Embassy/Consulate where application was made.

Please note that some Embassies and Consulates have a very high volume of cases and, therefore, a response to an inquiry may be delayed. I ask that you please be patient. Please send your inquiry to Senator Charles Schumer, 757 Third Avenue, Suite 1702, New York, NY 10017.

Immigrant Visas Pending Overseas (Relative & Fiance/e Petitions)

Immigrant visas are available for certain family members of permanent residents or citizens of the United States. When an immigrant visa petition for a relative that is living overseas is approved by INS it is then forwarded to the National Visa Center for further processing. When the National Visa Center finishes processing the case, they will forward it to an Embassy or Consulate overseas. Once the case reaches the Embassy or Consulate, your relative will be contacted for further processing and visa issuance.

If your family member has an immigrant visa case pending overseas and you would like to know the status of their case, please send a brief request of assistance including:

1. Name of family member who has immigrant visa case pending.
2. Date of Birth
3. Case number (the case number starts with 3 letters, which will identify the Embassy/Consulate, followed by 10 numbers - example: XYZ-2002567890)
4. Alien number or INS Receipt Number (if case number is not available)

Please note that some Embassies and Consulates have a very high volume of cases and, therefore, a response to an inquiry may be delayed. I ask that you please be patient. Please send your inquiry to Senator Charles Schumer, 757 Third Avenue, Suite 1702, New York, NY 10017.