Hello everybody. In this video, we're going to talk about why the NVC and State Department
backlogs continue to increase. We've got a lot of comments and questions from you guys. And I'm
going to feature a few of you in this video and answer this question. And also what we can do now
to overcome those backlogs and what the State Department is going to do
to speed up the process and get us back to normal. Make sure you watch this video until the end,
and I'll see you on the other side. Hello, everybody, and welcome back to
our immigration channel. This is a place where you get the most up to date, immigration news,
immigration information, and everything else that you need to make your immigration journey
less stressful. My name is Jacob Sapochnick, and I'm an immigration attorney located in San Diego,
California. I help clients in all 50 states. In this video, I'll be reading some of your
questions. You can see they all have the same theme people are worried about when they're
going to get their interview appointments. When is NVC going to release their case? I'm going
to address all this in this video, including what the State Department is going to be doing
to make things faster and hopefully speed up the processing of your cases. Here are some of the
questions I've been getting. Yamari Rodriguez says I'm sad because my fiance's case is still in NVC.
Everything's approved, they're waiting for Guyana, asking them for the paper to get the interview.
I've got another one for the Bhaharti Misal, What about I-O1s. Again those cases also stuck. I'll
explain to you what's happening with respect to I-O1s, CR1s. Conrad de Souza. I'm waiting for my
wife's interview, her priority date was November 22, 2021. And her DQ date is December 2020.
When will she get an interview? What they do with my case was accepted back in March and I've gotten
no updates since then. Should I call? Once again documentary qualified Fiancee Visa. This is Ashley
Castillo, Lovely Moo. Jacob, What about Ethiopia? My husband's still waiting for an interview.
Once again those are documentary qualified people that are not getting the interviews.
Soufiane Memon, What about the embassy in Pakistan Islamabad? Once again, documentary qualified,
waiting to be scheduled Besharab from India, documentary qualified in October 2020. CR1, what
can we do for how much time until the interview letter? As you can see so many questions, so many
comments, the same theme. Why are the NVC backlogs keep increasing? So many, many more comments just
like that on our YouTube channel. And so in this video, we'll address the issue of why NVC backlogs
are continuing to grow instead of decrease. And what is the State Department doing about it to
bring things back to normal? So let's talk about why these backlogs continue to increase? Remember,
number one, US embassies and consulates worldwide, were closed for over a year. And even now,
as this slowly reopening in different phases, they're still not working normally. And we're
now in August of 2021. These embassies are still working in a limited capacity. That's one of the
main reasons why these backlogs continue to grow. Because while NVC continues to work normally as
you know, and as I mentioned in all these videos, NVC continues to work, they continue to process
your DS 260 forms, they can continue to take your cases, and they continue to documentary qualify
your applications. The problem is that the volume of cases is close to almost 600,000 cases that
are now sitting in the NVC, they're not able to be sent to US embassies because US embassies are not
able to open slots. And as I mentioned in previous videos, they're required to notify the embassy
30 to 60 days in advance when they have interview slots open so that NVC will be able to send them
those cases. Well, that has not been happening. Very, very few embassies are opening slots
right now. And therefore the backlog with NVC continues to grow every single day. Number two,
there are about 133 embassies that are currently open. Many of these embassies,
while they're open, they're working in a limited capacity. What does that mean? That means that
they are not working on processing all visa categories. That means they are working under
tier categories. There are four tiers. We talked about the four tiers in many videos,
and they're giving priority to certain visas and less priority to other visas. As a result,
less and less people are able to get interviews. As a result, less and less people are able to
get regular scheduled interviews. And the only interviews at some of these embassies that are
conducted are expedited cases only or very limited regular interviews. So, that's another reason why
this backlog continues to increase. Even with those embassies that are officially opened
based on the chart that was released by the State Department. The presidential proclamations
that were issued under the Trump administration essentially killed our visa processing system.
The Muslim ban as we remember and other bans that were instituted back then essentially
stopped the processing of visas completely. Many people were not able to get visas at all,
and these proclamations barred US citizen parents who come to the United States, they bar people
from certain countries to come to the United States, it barred certain employment-based,
green card holders from coming to the United States. It created a massive backlog. They only
started to be released when Biden lifted those proclamations, and this happened less than a year
ago, and therefore, these backlogs continue to be in place at the moment. Number four travel bans.
We still have travel bans for many countries, the whole Schengen countries, South Africa, Iran,
China, those countries while they're not able to enter the United States now these consular
officers also, by mistake are not issuing visas to members and are not issuing visas to applicants
from those countries. That's also a problem because while there's a travel ban in place,
it does not mean that these US embassies and consulates should not be issuing visas,
and they are now doing so. And as a result, there are more than four lawsuits that were filed
against the State Department, against these embassies and consulates, to force them to start
issuing visas, even though travel bans are still in place. And as you know, nobody has an idea.
When these travel bans are going to be lifted, it's really up to the US government to decide
whether that's a priority, or whether they are worried about the spread of the virus. But the
reality is that we still have travel bans, and some embassies and consulates are using that as a
reason not to issue visas. Finally, remember, the visa bulletin didn't stop despite the travel bans,
despite the backlogs, the visa bulletin continues to advance slowly, specifically
on the dates of filing. And while those days were advancing, no interviews were scheduled.
So the backlog continues to increase, which means that while more people continued to be documented,
qualified, many people still are not able to get interviews. And as a result, as I mentioned,
a few minutes ago, 600,000 people documentary qualified are sitting in NVC, not able to get
interviews. That is essentially the crisis that we're talking about right now. Now, as I mentioned
before, the State Department is now following a four-tier system to process applications.
And those categories that are up in the tier are definitely getting priority, and they're getting
a faster movement. But we still have a lot of applications that are not in that priority system.
And those people definitely will be left behind, waiting for their interviews to be scheduled, with
no idea when this is going to happen. Now some embassies that have more capacity to process cases
will give priority to others on the tier system. So whether they are tier three or four, if they
have the capacity to process them, they will do so which hopefully will help speed up the processing
and reduce the backlogs in those particular posts. So what is the State Department doing to help
speed up the process and tackle this backlog? So we'll be able to give answers to people just like
you who are writing and posting comments and are really worried about what's going to happen. So,
first of all, it's about the State Department continuing to train more consular officers
to be able to handle those visa interviews, as they are planning to open more and more slots
to be able to take on interviews. We know that because of their recent liaison committee with
the State Department, they announced that they're going to be training more officers to be able to
handle the amount of cases that we're heading their way. Once more embassies and consulates
are going to open more slots for interviews. The next thing that is going to happen is that less
people are going to be documentarily qualified in the next several months. The documentary qualified
system is going to slow down a little bit to allow those that are currently documentary qualified
to start to be able to get their interviews and get their dates current. So a lot of people that
are currently documentary qualified, are going to start seeing probably dates become current
as more of these embassies are opening slots for interviews to be available for them. The
next thing is that the processing of expedited cases is going to increase.
Day by day we see more approvals are coming from different posts that have been very difficult,
like Islamabad, in Manila. We still have a lot of issues with Moscow. But certainly, more of the
difficult posts are allowing these expedited cases to go through NVC is approving them.
And then emergency appointments can be scheduled at those embassies. So I highly emphasize,
if you're stuck and you're currently in this situation, make sure you try
to expedite your application. I've done a video before about how to do so. We are doing those
cases all the time. I highly encourage you to contact our office. If you need help with your
expedite. The phone number is right here on the screen 619-483-4549, we can help you expedite
your case. It is one of the most effective ways right now to do so. So definitely getting yourself
expedited is a great solution. Also, if you are not yet a US citizen we highly encourage you
to become a US citizen. If you're filing a category for, as a green card holder in that
category is a little bit slow right now you can upgrade your petition but it also can help you
process your application faster. As a US citizen of an immediate relative, those are definitely
higher on the priority list and will allow you to bring your loved ones to the United States
much faster. And finally, if all fails, and you tried everything, and your case is not moving
forward, suing the government under the Writ of Mandamus individually is a good way as well.
We've been doing those cases, as a last resort after our expedited efforts are not working.
We encourage you to contact our office, if you need help to sue the government, this could
be an opportunity to force the government to do their duty and process your application today. So
hopefully, this video was helpful just give you a little bit of a glimpse as to what's happening
with these backlogs, why they're happening, what is going to happen on the State Department side
to try to speed up the process and clear those backlogs and what you can do now to get out of
this mess. So thanks again for watching. Leave me a comment. Let me know what other questions you
have. Maybe we'll feature your question next time. And once again, if you're here for the first time,
do not forget to subscribe to our channel. Click the notification bell
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this video to more people just like you. Thanks for watching, and I'll see you in our next video.