On June 9th, the Department of State met with the American Immigration Lawyers
Association to answer questions about visa processing
at embassies and consulates around the world.
Some of the topics they covered included visa interview waivers, immigrant
and nonimmigrant visa reporting, unused visa numbers in fiscal year
2022, and stateside visa issuance, among others.
They also revealed what they will be doing this summer to further reduce the visa
interview backlog, so keep watching to find out what they have planned.
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The American Immigration Lawyers Association, or AILA, started by asking
the Department of State whether or not they plan to reinstitute stateside visa
processing for more nonimmigrant visa categories.
Currently stateside visa processing is only available to certain diplomatic
nonimmigrant categories, but the State Department
could expand the service to non-diplomatic categories as well.
This would allow
consular posts around the world to spend more of their time and resources
on reducing the immigrant visa backlog, instead of reissuing nonimmigrant visas.
When asked about this
during their meeting, the State Department acknowledged that they are evaluating
measures and initiatives that may assist in alleviating the visa backlog.
While their answer might seem ambiguous, this is promising news considering
they have accepted some of AILA's previous recommendations in the past.
On December 23rd, 2021, the Secretary of State authorized
consular officers to waive certain non-immigrant visa interviews
through the end of 2022.
This included H-1, H-3, H-4, L, O,
P, Q, F, M, and academic J visa applicants.
They also gave consular posts discretion to waive interviews
for any nonimmigrant visa within 48 months of expiration.
Unfortunately, because a decision is up to the individual
embassies and consulates to decide this policy is not being consistently applied.
During their meeting, AILA said that some of their members had reported
that posts still had not implemented the interview waiver program.
In response, the Department of State said that the vast majority of posts worldwide
use the waiver authority and that approximately 30% of all nonimmigrant
visa applicants should be able to have their interview waived.
As many of you know, Charlie Oppenheim was the Chief of Immigrant Visa
Control, and was responsible
for determining the number of visas allocated in each category.
Before he retired in December of last year,
Charlie also hosted monthly "Chats With Charlie" on YouTube,
in which he answered immigrant questions about the Visa Bulletin.
During their meeting,
AILA asked the Department of State when they planned to fill his role,
but was told that the Visa Office does not comment on H.R.
processes.
Hopefully they will fill his position soon and resume these monthly updates,
which were a welcome source of information for immigrants
stuck in the visa backlog.
In fiscal year 2021, there were roughly 140,000 unused
family-based green cards that carried over into employment numbers.
This was largely due to consular posts around the world shutting down in response
to the COVID pandemic.
So during their meeting, AILA asked the Department of State
whether the number of family-sponsored
green cards issued would be higher in fiscal year 2022.
While they were not able to provide a clear estimate at this time,
it confirmed that they have also issued more family-based preference visas
in the first half of fiscal year 2022 than in all of 2021.
As for the employment-based visas this year, there is a record number
of approximately 280,000, double the typical annual total.
As of mid-June, USCIS and the Department of State have used
significantly more visas than at the same point in fiscal year 2021.
And last year, the two agencies were able to issue
195,507 employment-based visas, so the chances are good
they will use all available numbers this year.
One of the biggest frustrations among immigrants during this unprecedented
visa backlog has been the lack of communication
counselor posts and the State Department, in response AILA requested
that two new forms of information be made regularly available.
1) Monthly aggregated data for immigrant and nonimmigrant visas
that allows the public to more easily see the number of immediate relative
and preference number usage.
2) A post-by-post breakdown of documentarily
complete cases awaiting visa interviews to be scheduled.
The Department of State responded
that they appreciated the suggestion for the monthly aggregated data
and that they are unfortunately not able to provide a breakdown
of pending interviews at embassies and consulates around the world.
One of the most important factors
in successfully reducing the visa backlog is staffing the consular posts.
During the meeting, the Department of State
confirmed that they are in the process of hiring more staff,
but cautioned that the process for hiring, issuing security clearances, training,
and deploying an overseas consular officer takes over a year to complete.
They assured AILA that staffing resources are being directed to the post
with the most urgent needs, including high volume immigrant visa posts.
And finally, the State Department mentioned their plans
to implement a new workflow process this summer.
While they did not go into detail, they emphasized that these new processes
would reduce the overall administrative processing volume at consulates
and embassies around the world.
They also emphasized that they anticipate significantly reducing the NVC visa
interview backlog within the coming two years, which is similar to what
we recently heard from consular posts in India and the Philippines.
Were there questions missing you had hoped to hear about?
If you could ask the State Department any question about your case,
what would it be? Leave me a comment below and let me know!
And if your case is documentarily complete with NVC and you are waiting for word
on your visa interview,
be sure to check out my recent update on Visa Interview Wait Times.
I'll include a link to that video here.
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