Back from consular interview abroad - Page 2

Yes I did. I actually had two. The first one I submitted back in August, my only grandparent is 80 and in the very advanced stage of parkison's desease. He is very weak and like a little baby now, cannot even eat anyway, i applied for AP based on humanitarian reason to see him, since I have not seen him in 17 years. However, I got my appointment for the interview for Nov 30, only 4 months into that application and those are taking about 8 months average to process.

So i went and spent a couple of days trying to get an info pass appt to apply for AP based on financial loss to the company I work for. I spent about 3 days trying to get to someone who would give me one. i was told no a couple of times. I was finally given an appt date only 6 days before I was supposed to leave to my home country. I had to fly from GA to NY, then drive 3hrs to ge to where the field office was, there I presented all documentation (let me know if you want to know what i brought), and was told that they had very limited number of AP to give out (weird), but they would check with the supervisors and let me know. Sometime later they called me and told me they had approved it, I paid the fees again and waited another 4rhs to get it. By that time, I could have waited days if they had asked me to... I was so relieved to get the AP as a back up before going to my home country because we never know what could happened.

Even though I had to pay the AP fee twice and did not end up needing it, I do no regret at all spending the time and money for this.

I would probably try this route too as I’m sure my company would be supportive in helping me apply for AP. Would you mind letting me know what documentation you brought that allowed you to get approved? Also, I thought you can apply for AP if you’re going on a work trip. I’m not understanding how you can tie in financial loss to company as a reason for traveling under AP. Any information would be helpful. Thank you!

I brought a letter from HR verifying my employment
a letter from my manager describing my responsabilities ( i wrote it and she reviewed and signed it)
then a small paragraph explaining why if went out of the US without AP and were unable to come back how it would affect the company. I listed like 6 things, such
they would lose an experience employee, would have to hire and train some one else
projects I was currently involved be would be delayed
some deliverables to actual clients would be missed or at least late
my team would be negatively affected as it would lose one key member


I also brought the letter for my visa appointment letter, this was based on a petition from my employer filed a while back (I-140, + 601A + consular interview), which was the main reason why I needed to go, to attend this. Otherwise, there was no need for me to travel. So yeah it was a long shot for me, but it worked. I guess for you, you would need to have something that is making it "necessary" for you to travel.
let me know if you need any other info.

Thanks! This is extremely helpful!