An alien cannot enter the U.S. simply because U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) issues an I-797 approval notice. A beneficiary must first obtain a visa based on the I-797, or be permitted to enter through a U.S. port of entry (POE) or preflight inspection facility (PFI) based on the I-797. For this to occur, USCIS must somehow communicate the approval to a consular post, POE or PFI. The traditional, and best, method of such communication is for the petitioner to await receipt of the original I-797 approval notice, copy it, then send the original to the artist or group representative abroad. The petitioner should also send along a full copy of the underlying petition submitted to USCIS, to be available should the consulate have further questions. Occasionally, contract information may first need to be deleted.

In addition to awaiting the I-797, petitioners can ask USCIS to fax the approval notice to the consulate, POE, or PFI—even to multiple locations—particularly in premium processed cases and those involving traditional expedites. It is possible to check with the Premium Processing unit to confirm that it sent the fax(es), but not with traditional expedite cases. Draw the attention of USCIS to your fax request by marking it prominently in the petitioner letter, and on the I-129. When asking USCIS to fax an approval notice, it is best to ask that it do so to the attention of the Nonimmigrant Visa Chief if a consulate is involved. And, it is most helpful to provide USCIS with the full dialing instructions, including O11, the country and city code, and consular fax number, which can be obtained from the consular web sites.

Unfortunately, some consular posts insist on receiving the original I-797 in support of a visa application while others, and POES and PFIS as well, suffer from disappearing fax syndrome, so the fax notification procedure is not always reliable.

On occasion, you may need multiple approval notices (for petitions involving groups whose beneficiaries will apply for visas at more than one consulate). You will receive the I-797 approval, which can be sent to one place, while others may accept a fax. Otherwise, though, the best you can do is to ask for multiple I-797s to be issued.

Issues respecting communications generally can be addressed more easily in the context of Premium Processing, because USCIS is more accessible and flexible in that setting.

Finally, the Department of State and USCIS are set to implement at some point in May 2004 a new procedure whereby the service centers will send approved I-129 files (such as for O and P petitions) on a weekly basis to the State Department’s Kentucky Consular Center (KCC), which will then scan the entire contents of the file within 48 hours and email the approval directly to the target consular post. If the post so requests, KCC will also email the scanned file. In general, this is a positive development that should improve, not impede, processing times. It should also eliminate the need for more than one original I-797s, because applicants should be able to go to other consular posts with a copy of the I-797 approval notice that, in turn, will email KCC to confirm the approval.