(a) General.

When an approvable relative petition is personally presented abroad, it may be adjudicated regardless of the place of residence of the petitioner. The officer shall forward Form I-130A to the appropriate Files Control Office.

Immigration officers shall expedite I-130 relative visa petitions on behalf of detained aliens or refugees. The officer shall write "Detained Aline" or "Refugee" in the remarks block of the I-130. (Revised)

Under no circumstances shall a Service employee suggest or indicate to a petitioner in the United States that he depart from the United States and file his petition with a foreign office of the Service or at an American consular post solely for the purpose of obtaining prompt action on his petition.

(b) Check of Service records.

A visa petition shall not be approved or revalidated until the name of the principal beneficiary, and the names of any spouse and children who may derive preference status through their relationship to him, have been checked against the Service Lookout Book. If such check or other information reveals the existence of relating files, they shall be obtained and considered before making a determination upon the visa petition.

However, the Service Lookout Book does not need to be checked with respect to any beneficiary who is under 14 years of age or whose relating "A" file has been reviewed; or with respect to beneficiaries of a nonimmigrant visa petition whose names are unavailable at the time of adjudication. If it is necessary, pursuant to this OI, to check the names of either the principal or derivative beneficiaries against the Service Lookout Book, the names of all the beneficiaries who are 14 years of age or older sh all be checked.

A check of Central Office records may also be made with respect to the petitioner or beneficiary, but only when it is believed such a check would produce pertinent information.

When a Central Office record check is requested, Form G-180 shall be forwarded to the Central Office. To facilitate attachment of the returned Form G-180 to the relating petition, there shall be noted in the "alias" block on each form prepared "VP-beneficiary" or "VP-petitioner," as appropriate; on Form G-180 prepared for a beneficiary without a file, insert under "Remarks" the word "Petitioner" and show his name. If it will be helpful to the adjudicating office, the form number of the petition may al so be inserted under "Remarks".

After the Service Lookout Book has been checked, a stamp bearing the legend "SLB-CHECKED" shall be placed above the "date filed" box on the petition, and initialed by the adjudicator. If a Central Office record check was made, a stamp bearing the legend "SLB-COREC CHECKED" shall be placed on the petition instead, and initialed by the adjudicator; any Form G-180 returned with notations showing "no record"or "no file exists" shall then be destroyed.

Any further action which may be required, short of approval of the petition, shall not be delayed while the Central Office reply to Form G-180 is being awaited.

(c) Disposition of approved petitions.

If an approved petition indicates the beneficiary will apply for adjustment under section 245 INA and he or she is not clearly ineligible to immediately adjust, it should be kept on file by the Service, and the approval notice should indicate that the adjustment application should be filed immediately. In all other cases the petition should be sent to the American Consulate selected by the petitioner on the petition. If a consulate was not designated on the petition, it should be sent to the consulate with jurisdiction over the beneficiary's last residence as indicated on the petition.

(d) Additional procedures where a beneficiary is in the United States.

(i) General. Where it is apparent that a beneficiary is in the United States, is out of status and is not already under docket control, consideration should be given to issuing an Order to Show Cause under 8 CFR 242.

(ii) Petitions filed prior to January 1, 1988 and alien met the requirements of the Stateside Criteria Program on the riling date of the petition. For those cases in which the petitioner has requested that the approved petition be forwarded to a visa-issuing post in Canada, the following notation shall be placed in the "REMARKS" block of the petition:

From the information immediately available, this beneficiary appears to be ineligible for adjustment of status benefits and in all likelihood will be permitted to remain in the United States pending the issuance of a visa.

State Department will take notice that such notations are made provisionally and based solely on the information available at adjudication. It is understood that these notations are not binding and that subsequent developments could change the Service's position.