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I applied for US tourist visa in the US consulate in Paris. They have taken longer than a month to issue the visa and the status says its under “administrative processing”. I’m presuming this to mean background check (?). I urgently needed my passport back for travels to another country and will not travel to the US till they approve the visa (in which case I’ll have to travel back to Paris for getting the stamp which is ok with me). Their website has a contact form but “passport request back” is not listed as a contact reason (EDIT: my apologies this statement is wrong. This is listed as an option I just checked it on a wider screen). I wanted to know how long it would take to get passport back if I request such a thing under “administrative processing” option. Is cancelling the visa process faster than requesting passport back while keeping visa process going in the background?

Also, has anyone had any similar experience? Do they only return it by mail or is it possible to request them to hand it to you at the embassy (might be faster) ?

Thanks in advance.

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"My application is under administrative processing but I need my passport returned to me by mail"

is the third option on this contact form:

https://fr.usembassy.gov/visas/visa-section-contact-form/

It doesn't give a time frame, but you might find comfort in the fact that the occurrence is common enough to warrant its own option on a contact form, which means they must already have a process in place for dealing with this. I apologize for the other poster who disparaged your situation as "low frequency" and "unusual."

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    It is an uncommon situation. Most people either get the visa or get rejected; a very small percentage go into administrative processing. There is nothing disparaging snout pointing that out.
    – Roddy of the Frozen Peas
    Commented Dec 9, 2018 at 8:41
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    No. OP said, "'passport request back' is not listed as a contact reason' (emphasis mine). OP was looking at a different contact form.
    – wemily
    Commented Dec 9, 2018 at 9:29
  • Sorry it was my mistake the option is listed I just wasn’t able to read all of it as I was doing it on my cellphone since I was traveling. I’ve made the correction.
    – AVJ
    Commented Dec 9, 2018 at 11:54
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I wanted to know how long it would take to get passport back if I request such a thing under “administrative processing” option.

There are no known publicly available statistics for such low frequency unusual events.

Is cancelling the visa process faster than requesting passport back while keeping visa process going in the background?

Primarily opinion based. Your best option is to call the embassy.

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    Just because you don't know the answer does not make a question or its answers "opinion based." Even if nobody outside of the consulate knows the answer, that does not make it subjective, and somebody still knows the answer. Faster is entirely objective.
    – wemily
    Commented Dec 9, 2018 at 8:37

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