In this video, we’ll give you the most recent update about the backlog at the US consulates
and embassies worldwide, as well as the backlog at the National Visa Center, NVC. This is based
on a recent Q&A that the Department of State had with the American Immigration Lawyers Association
that I'm a member of and I'll be sharing with you all the key highlights
from that conversation. So, what are you waiting for? I'll see you on the other side. Hello,
everybody, welcome back to our Immigration channel. This is the place where we get the
most up-to-date news, up-to-date information about immigration, and everything else that you need
to make your immigration journey less stressful. So, let's talk about the most up-to-date
information about the backlog at the US embassies and consulates worldwide, and the National Visa
Center. The NVC is currently holding almost half a million documentarily qualified applications
that are ready to be scheduled for interviews. The same problem we have with non-immigrant visas
before the pandemic, US embassies and consulates worldwide were issuing over 700,000 non-immigrant
visas every single month. Currently, less than 100,000 non-immigrant visas are issued every
single month. This is a drop of more than 85% in non-immigrant visa issuance all over the world.
In order for embassies and consulates to truly reopen on a consistent basis, the
Biden administration must do something more than what they're doing right now. They have to force
embassies to conduct interviews remotely on zoom and online. They have to start waving immigrant
visa interviews, just like USCIS is doing inside the United States. USCIS started interview waivers
as of May of 2020, and that helped them overcome a backlog that otherwise would have continued
through 2021. They're doing it so why can't the State Department do the same? We'll cover
some of the upcoming suggestions that the State Department could consider also in this video,
but let's dive into the questions as provided by the Department of State in the most recent
Q&A with the American Immigration Lawyers Association, and also from a recent Q&A that
the Department of State had online with their representative Neal Vermillion that also provides
some information that could be relevant to you as well. One of the most important questions that
were raised during the Department of State Q&A with the American Immigration Lawyers Association
was how many of the consular posts have fully resumed operation and if so, how many and which
one? And here's the response. The status of an embassy or consulates operations changes in line
with local conditions. Post websites are regularly updated to reflect their operational status.
And this information can be accessed at travel.state.gov. As of May 12, 2021, 133
of our 139 immigrant visa processing posts are processing at least some routine immigrant visa
services. The remainder of those is able to do just emergency services. 160 of 223
non-immigrant visa processing posts are offering some routine non-immigrant visa appointments.
The remaining 63 posts remain closed for all but emergency and mission-critical services. As you
can see, less than 150 posts are actually open and operating on a semi-normal basis. This can change
on a daily basis depending on the country conditions depending on how many vaccinations
are available. In fact, the State Department also mentioned in the same Q&A that depending on
regions where they have more vaccination available for local residents and staff. That means that
will also speed up the opening of the consulates in particular locations like Israel, for example,
where routine visa processing completely resumed for both immigrant and non-immigrant visas, but
other parts of Europe is definitely much slower and they're waiting for more opportunities to get
vaccinated, and for the consulates to be reopened. So, let's move on to the NVC and et's see what
the Department of State had to say about the current backlog at the NVC. The question that was
addressed with the Department of State was that given the current backlog NVC is more than four
more than 500,000 cases are sitting and waiting at NVC, documented qualified to be interviewed.
applicants are concerned that their cases may fall through the cracks. They may not be sent for an
interview and their delays are going to continue forever. Also, based on the most recent update
that they provided, cases from NVC are being sent to the consulates on a first come first
serve basis as soon as they become documentarily qualified. Given all this confusion, the question
that was presented to the NVC is, what steps are they taking to make sure their cases and are
not falling through the cracks, and that cases still remain active while applicants are sitting
and waiting for the attorney to be called for an interview. And here's the response from the NVC.
NVC has started a pilot in which all case parties are sent an electronic notification 60 days after
their case has reached documentarily complete status. If the case has not been scheduled,
the notification assures applicants that they don't need to take any further action and that
their case will be scheduled for an interview in the first in first out manner. As soon as the
interviewing embassy or consulate can accommodate them, that message will be repeated every 120 days
thereafter, until the case is scheduled. But that's good news. Today, NVC is actually being
proactive about it, they started this email notification pilot. And also they said that
they may come up with a system where they're going to be announcing on their website, which cases are
documentarily qualified in a particular month, and which cases they are working on at a particular
month so the applicants will be aware as to where they stand in the line. Another question that
came up at the DOS meeting is whether the State Department will consider zoom meetings or video
conference meetings to help more applicants to go through the interviews and fight the
significant backlog this way. So, let's hear the response of Neal Vermillion on a video live stream
that he responded to this question last week. That's another good question. Obviously,
we're doing zoom and YouTube and things like that here. Technology has changed quite a bit.
But I'll give you a simple straightforward answer, which, again, may not be the most welcomed answer,
but it's immigrant, non-immigrant visa applicants are required by statute and regulation to appear
in person before the consular officer. So, it comes down to statute regulation.
As a consular officer who has worked in the field, I also like to talk about the benefits of
this process. National security is our top priority when we adjudicate these applications.
Each prospective traveler undergoes extensive screening, and as part of that we have this
interview process where our officers not only look at the visa application, but they talk to
the applicant, they look at the body language, and they figure out what the applicant is saying to
make an informed decision about whether the person is eligible and whether there are any national
security-related concerns. So, that's more of a long-winded answer. But the short answer, as
mentioned is, is based on statute and regulation So, as you can see from Neal's response,
and also from the notes of the DOS meeting with the American Immigration Lawyers Association,
zoom meetings or video conference meetings are not possible by statute. By statute, they have to
actually interview applicants to determine whether they are qualified to enter the United States
whether they receive a non-immigrant visa or an immigrant visa. So, zoom interviews are not going
to happen anytime soon. Another question that came up at the recent DOS meeting was about students
on non-immigrant visas. So, the question is, do F1 and M1 students who are going to start school
before August 1, 2021, need the national interest exception to enter the United States? This is
what the Department of State had to say. Students and academics subject to these proclamations due
to their presence in China, Iran, Brazil or South Africa may qualify for national interest exception
only if the academic program begins August 1, 2021, or later, students would [inaudible] F1, M1
visas, intending to begin or continue an academic program, including Optional Practical Training,
starting August 1, 2021, or later do not need to contact an embassy or consulate to travel. They
may enter the United States no earlier than 30 days before the start of their academic program.
students seeking to apply for new F1 or M1 visas should check the status of visa services at the
nearest embassy or consulate. Those applicants who are found to be otherwise qualified for an
F1 or M1 will automatically be considered for a national interest exception to travel. So,
if you're an F1 M1 student and you intend to study before August 1, 2021, you will qualify
for a national interest exception to enter the United States to continue your studies. So, this
is good news. So, what is the State Department actually doing to address these backlogs? Well,
the first thing they did is, set up a 40-year process to start cutting through the backlog. The
40-year process as I mentioned in previous videos is the following. Tier one, immediate relative
adoption cases and age out children under the age of 21. This is Tier one immigrant visas. Tier two
is immigrant visas and fiancee visas. They'll be processing this order. Tier three, all the family
preference categories for immigrant visas. And finally, Tier four are all the employment-based
immigrant visas that are being processed in that order. So, that's going to help a little bit with
the backlog. The other thing they are doing is bringing more staff. They're training more staff
to be able to deal with the backlog and expanding their facilities beyond just the interview windows
to be able to interview people in other areas of their consulates. This is dependent on the
consulate depending on the country where they're doing this. For example, in Madrid, Spain,
they have definitely expanded the facilities outside of the regular interview areas to the
back of the embassy. In Israel, they have other areas where they are able to interview people, as
most of the country is vaccinated. So, facilities are reopening. So many of these consulates are
finding creative ways and efficient ways to be able to facilitate interviews in a way that will
be more effective for the particular country where they're at. But again, it really depends on the
country conditions and on the specific particular embassies. So, yes, training more staff will help.
Reworking the facilities will help. But we definitely need more from the State Department to
cut through this enormous backlog. Final question. Let's talk about the DV lottery 2021 winners. The
question is, will they get expedited interviews because they have to complete the process before
September 30, 2021? And here's the response of the Department of State, and the state is making every
effort to process as many diversity visa cases as possible, consistent with other priorities despite
the severe operational constraints and backlog resulting from the COVID-19 pandemic. However,
as a result of COVID-19 related restrictions and complications, the number of diversity visas
issued will likely not approach the statutory ceiling in the fiscal year 2021. Beyond that,
we should note that selection in the DV lottery is not a guarantee of a visa or interview
in any program year. As we always select more participants, we will be issuing visas in order
to make sure that we don't run out of applications before the end of the fiscal year. And every year,
there are applicants whose cases couldn't be adjudicated before the end of the relevant
fiscal year for a broad range of reasons. So, as you can see, it's a very diplomatic response,
almost kind of like a way for the [inaudible] to say you know what, we can’t guarantee that all
the DV winners for 2021 will be able to get their interviews, because of the other factors impacting
including more visas that have been selected. But the reality is that
if embassies and consulates are not going to be able to reopen correctly, they're not going to
be able to process cases properly. Many DV lottery winners will be missing their visas. And there's
not much you can do except for, probably litigation. And we'll see what happens. So,
hopefully, these updates were helpful. We talked about embassies reopening, we talked about the NVC
backlog, talking about what the State Department is actually doing to cut through this backlog
and make processing visas more efficient. As soon as we have more information. I promise to keep you
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