Administrative Processing

There are various types of SAOs, usually named after various animals, with two named after legendary characters. As of August 2006, these included Visas Mantis (potential illegal transfer of sensitive or dual-use technology, introduced in 1998), Visas Bear (for foreign government officials, representatives to international organizations, and their families), Visas Donkey (name hits, certain nationalities), Visas Merlin (for refugees and asylees), Visas Eagle (certain nationals of Cuba, China, Iran, Russia, and Vietnam), Visas Condor (certain nationalities, introduced in January 2002), and Visas Hawk (for immigrant visas). There are also other types of SAOs used for notifying the Department of State about visa issuance and that the applicant will be traveling to the United States: Visas Horse (diplomatic visa holders of certain nationalities) and Visas Pegasus (officials of Commonwealth of Independent States).

Source: Wikipedia