Hello everybody. In this video, we're going to talk about the most recent update
about US visa consulates and visa processing updates. I'm also going to give you a quick update
about the most current pending lawsuits when it comes to embassies reopening visa backlogs,
and also DV lottery 2020 and 2021. I'm going to give you all the details about
it. What is happening right now all over the world is to speed up the processing of visas
at the respective consulates. So what are you waiting for? I'll see you on the other side.
Hello, everybody. And welcome back to our immigration channel. This is a place we get
the most up to date, immigration news, immigration information, and everything else that you need to
make your immigration journey less stressful. In this video, I want to dive into US consulates,
Visa processing delays, and all the lawsuits that have been filed recently to try to push forward
this process and get this backlog moving forward. So, sometimes things seem to be really frustrating
when it comes from the State Department, specifically because they're so vague, they don't
give us a lot of information. And also sometimes the videos that we provide information that we
give you seem to be a little bit always the same, with very, very few changes. And I give you an
example, just recently, the State Department posted on the Twitter account the following,
“We are committed to reducing the backlog of immigrant visas applicants waiting to
schedule appointments while keeping our staff and applicants safe. Applicants are encouraged
to monitor the embassy website for updates on what Visa Services are currently available.”
And as you can see, this is directly from the State Department and this is just a few days ago.
But what does it mean? It really means nothing. It's the same old things that I've been saying
for the past year, that embassies are committed to reducing the immigrant visa backlogs. Applicants
should check the respective embassies for progress and they're doing their best efforts to reopen,
and we should monitor the respective embassies to get information. Well, this is not enough.
And as a result, and therefore, there are several lawsuits that are currently pending,
specifically against the State Department’s refusal to issue visas to speed up appointments,
and to get people out of this backlog. Because the progress is so slow.
These lawsuits are challenging a few things because the progress is so slow.
The recent lawsuits are specifically challenging the State Department's refusal to issue visas.
Specifically, these lawsuits are saying that the State Department misinterpreted section 212F of
the Immigration and Nationality Act and continues to refuse visas to this day. Now, remember,
every time they refused a visa, they continue to pile up the backlog. And to this day, there are
more than half a million visas. They're sitting and waiting in the backlog to be processed.
What's happening because of that is that the National Visa Center, they're already finished
processing many applications that are currently documented qualified, are not able to send those
cases to their respective embassies, because they're not opening interview slots to start
interviewing people. And that's exactly what some of these lawsuits are trying to force them to do.
And just a week ago, another preliminary injunction was filed, forcing the State Department
to grant summary judgment and start issuing visas. And essentially, the idea is to bring back the
State Department to the way they were processing visas before the pandemic. Right now, almost
80,000 of their consular officers have already received their vaccines. Most of these consular
posts are now equipped to start seeing people on a regular basis. So while they're vaccinated, while
the posts are able to start seeing people, none of that is currently happening in practice. And
the question is why? So we hope that the recent lawsuits, including the preliminary injunction,
are going to start putting more pressure on the State Department to resume visa processing, just
like it happened before the pandemic. Remember, this is for countries that are not included in
the travel ban. For countries that are inside the travel ban, like Schengen, there's also litigation
pending because many of these consulates illegally were preventing people from getting their visas
just because of these travel bans. Well, guess what? The travel bans only state that if a
person wants to travel from any of the Schengen countries, and any of the other countries that
are barred from traveling to the United States as long as they quarantine for 14 days
in a third country, they can enter the United States. It doesn't mean that they're not supposed
to get visas. Well, that's another reason why specifically some of these consulates
and embassies are being sued directly for that violation of illegal refusal to issue visas just
because of the travel ban. In addition to that, we have a recent lawsuit by winners of DV Lottery
2020 and 2021 specifically for 2021 winners that are still not able to get appointments
at US embassies and consulates worldwide. And now that we have that 4th tier processing
preference categories, putting DV lottery winners at the lowest preference for visa adjudications.
So with this in mind, if nothing is going to happen very soon, many, many of these DV lottery
winners that wander cases legally may not be able to finish the process by the end of the year
by September 30, 2021, and get their visas. That's going to be very devastating to many, many people.
And therefore, the reason lawsuit is going to challenge that it's unfair, it shouldn't happen.
And we hope we're going to see a fast resolution coming to us very, very soon. So let's talk about
some visa statistics. in one of my previous videos, I mentioned to you that 133 consulates
finally resumed operation to a certain extent. But guess what, out of these 133 consulates,
only 60 of them are fully reopened, only 60 of them. That's really crazy because while the State
Department does not provide accurate statistics, the fact is that they do have meetings between the
American Immigration Lawyers Association and their representatives to provide us with some data.
And that's how we know what's happening on a regular basis. And when I'm telling you,
if almost less than half of the consulate is supposed to be working on a regular basis or open,
how they're going to be able to tackle this backlog, it's not going to happen until they
are going to be taking this very seriously and start going full blast on this and opening
all their embassies and consulates. Now, they're all their officers and consular adjudicators are
fully vaccinated. There are no excuses anymore, not to fully reopen all these consulates
and posts. So remember, this is the current statistic for now. And I'll probably be able
to give you even more in the next few weeks now, from all the posts that are not currently open,
based on our previous announcements, most of them only process emergency appointments to this day.
Once again, how can you tackle a backlog when you have only 60 embassies that are working
full time. And out of all the other ones, most of them are only processing emergency appointments.
That is why the lawsuits are being filed. And that is while we hoping that the preliminary injunction
and all the pressure that is being put on the State Department is going to yield some results.
And we're going to be seeing more movement in the next few weeks. And of course, we'll update you
right here on this channel. And finally, the State Department has expanded eligibility for national
interest exceptions for the travel ban to all the Schengen countries and all the other countries
that are being affected by the travel ban. You can see the link to the updated exceptions in the
description in this video. He does show that the State Department is trying to improve in certain
areas, they try to make it easier for certain people to be able to enter the United States.
But what we really need right now is more effort on the immigrant visa categories. Open these
embassies, open them fully and start processing visas as you should. Because like I said,
there's no more excuses right now, everybody's fully vaccinated. They have their capacities
with multiple lawsuits that are currently pending. And we hope that in the next few weeks,
we'll see at least some movement. And I'll be here to update you with more statistics,
more updated lawsuits, and what's happening with consulates and visas all over the world,
as well as on cases that we can share with you. So once again, if you're here for the first time,
don't forget to subscribe to our channel, click the notification bell so you don't miss any of
our videos. And also give us a big like so YouTube will be able to share this video with more people
just like you. I know there's going to be more news coming very soon. And we'll be on it to
update you where information from the State Department, from other agencies USCIS. I will
be here for you. If you have more topics that you want me to make videos on. Make sure you
drop them in the comments. I really appreciate all of you and I'll see you in our next video.