- Hi, everyone.
This is immigration attorney, Moumita Rahman,
and I'm an attorney in New York City.
I practice immigration law
and I serve clients all across the world
and in all 50 states of the U.S.
Today, I'm going to give you an update
about National Visa Center processing,
and how your immigrant visa application might be affected.
But before I go on any further,
make sure to subscribe to my channel.
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and you do not wanna miss any updates.
Make sure you hit that subscription bell
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So let's talk about what's going on
with the National Visa Center.
If you don't know and you haven't seen my previous videos,
if you have a family member who is overseas
that is waiting to come to the U.S. to join you,
they're probably waiting
to have an interview at the Consulate.
This process is overseen by the Department of State.
Underneath the Department of State,
there is another agency called the National Visa Center.
It is through this agency, the NVC,
that you have to submit documents
that are required for your interview at the Consulate.
As of right now, I have three big updates to give you.
The first update is that NVC has announced
that there is a delay in responding to correspondence.
Now, if you don't already know,
the NVC has been phasing out use of their email account.
So the main way to submit an inquiry to NVC
is either through the telephone at their call center
or online through that contact form.
This contact form can be found at the website,
which is, nvc.statre.gov/inquiry.
This is the Ask NVC contact form.
NVC has been asking persons
to submit inquiries about their cases, or status updates,
or other questions they might have about their case
through the Ask NVC form rather than the email.
As of right now,
NVC has requested that persons not to submit requests,
or any updates, or inquiries
through the Ask NBC form
unless it is for an urgent humanitarian or medical reason.
The reason for this is that,
the staff has been cut down severely at NVC
because of the COVID-19 situation.
And because they don't have enough people
to respond to the emails,
they want to make sure
that requests for urgent medical emergencies
or humanitarian reasons
are pushed through to the Console even faster.
So they're actually asking the public
to not send any increase unless it's for these two reasons.
And if you are going to be sending an inquiry
to request an extract of your case
because of an urgent humanitarian or medical reason,
they're asking that you make sure
that you submit documentation of your need to do so.
(air whooshing)
The other update that I want to give you is that,
NVC has also announced
that they will stop responding
to all physical mail as of June 1st.
So, if you are planning on sending an email to NVC,
whether it's for an inquiry
or for submitting documents from June 1st onwards,
do not do this unless NVC actually advises you
to send them something by mail.
Rather, if you make an inquiry,
make sure you do it through the Ask NVC form
at that link that I just mentioned.
These are my biggest updates for right now.
The COVID-19 situation is definitely preventing families
from being united again.
And we hope that once the Consulate reopen their doors
for their routine processing,
that your case will get scheduled as quickly as possible.
If you have any questions,
make sure to leave a comment,
and if you liked this video,
make sure you share it with friends
who you think might benefit from its use.
Until next time, this is Moumita Rahman,
the immigration attorney
helping you navigate this complex world of immigration.
This video is for informational purposes only
and does not constitute legal advice.
For proper legal advice on your case,
please call us or set up a consultation.