What to do when visa is in administrative processing and PhD program is starting? I'm a 1st year admitted Ph.D. student at an Ivy League University and a former Fulbrighter. I'd like to ask for your advice on my situation. I have applied for the F1 visa at the American Consulate and had the interview on July 17th. My application is under the "administrative processing" since then despite submitting all of the required documents on the same day of the request, July 17th. Note that I'm fully funded by the graduate school. My program starts September 1st, and I'm worried that I won't make it on time. Should I ask the school to defer my admission (which is unlikely as I've been told by a faculty), or ask my university advisor to try to reach the concerned authorities? I have worked very hard to receive such an admission offer by an extremely selective university and program and I'd appreciate any help in how to overcome this unnecessary delay.
The US state department says that wait times for administrative processing are usually less than 60 days, and they don't allow complaints or inquiries before those 60 days have passed.

July 17th sounds really late for PhD admission. You should have applied for a visa when you were admitted, probably back in April, or May at the latest, especially if you are in a country likely to have more scrutiny of visas.

You can talk to your department and inform them of the delay and ask how they would like to to proceed, but this seems like it falls under the category of "your fault" and there isn't anything your university can or should do to expedite the process. If your visa was denied for some incorrect reason (like they didn't believe you were admitted as a student), then the university would be of more help.