Shanghai, China - Consulate General of the United States

What is Administrative Processing?

Some visa applications require further administrative processing and you will be notified at the visa interview if your case requires it. A Consular officer will request additional information and the processing of your application will be delayed if you do not respond to the request as soon as possible. Submitting the same materials repeatedly to the Consulate is highly discouraged and will only result in delay of your application's processing. For all applicants, administrative processing is usually resolved within six weeks following the visa interview. Once approved, your visa will be immediately issued.

Applicants should apply early enough to assure that a final decision on their application can be completed well before their intended travel to the United States. Do not confirm your U.S. travel plans until you have received your approved visa in your passport. If the additional processing requirements may cause you to miss a planned meeting, business trip, or work/study start date, please make appropriate arrangements with your employer or sponsoring school or institution.

If dependents are applying for a visa at the same time as the principal applicant, their visas cannot be approved until the visa for the principal applicant is approved. We will hold their cases with the principal applicant’s case, and will return the passport at the same time the principal applicant’s passport is returned.

If you are planning to travel abroad while your U.S. non-immigrant visa application is pending, let the Consular officer know at the time of your interview that you need to retain your passport. Once a decision is made on your visa application, we will contact you and ask for your passport. After visa issuance, your passport will be returned to the designated CITIC Bank branch for pick-up.

How to Check the Status of Pending Case

Please visit the Consular Electronic Application Center (CEAC) website at https://ceac.state.gov/CEACStatTracker/Status.aspx to check the status of your visa application. You will need to input the barcode number (application ID) from your DS-160 application to access your case. If your visa application requires administrative processing we will not be able to adjudicate your visa application until the processing is complete. 

If your application was temporarily refused pending the submission of supplemental information, please check the status of your case no sooner than three to five business days after providing the requested information.

To request your barcode number, please contact the Non-Immigrant Visa unit via their web form.

Once the CEAC website indicates that your visa has been issued, you may track the delivery of your passport to your pre-designated CITIC bank location.  Send an e-mail to passportstatus@ustraveldocs.com and in the subject and/or body enter a valid passport number exactly as it was entered at the time the appointment was scheduled, and you will receive an automatic response with the status.