Immigrant Visa Pause Update, Sept 22: All Posts Told to Adjudicate, Tashkent Answers, Tbilisi Calls a Non-Plaintiff

Monday evening to Tuesday evening. Court developments are secondhand; we have not read the documents.

The instruction changed

At Monday's conference in the diversity visa case, government counsel told the judge that the department had that day instructed every post that it must adjudicate all immigrant visa applications whether or not it has completed the public-charge training. Until then, by the government's own account, posts without the training were told not to resume, with named plaintiffs as the exception. Counsel added that reconsideration of cases refused under the pause is being prioritised. Plaintiffs' counsel noted the written declaration does not say in terms that it covers non-plaintiffs, so the scope on paper is still to be confirmed.

The filing that came with it reportedly includes the cables behind the last month. An August cable requires a worksheet with findings on age, health, family, assets, debts, education, benefits, joint sponsors and, where there is an affidavit of support, a commercial public-records report on the sponsor. A September cable sets out the training and certification. And there is a review layer after the officer's decision: a case found eligible is authorised for printing, reviewed by a manager, and passed through an internal application whose report can reportedly lead to a printed visa being spoiled or an issued one being reconsidered. That is the mechanism behind the Dhaka remark last week that the officer was not the final decision-maker. The re-interview guide now carries the worksheet and how a sponsor can read their own report before the interview.

What moved within a day

Tashkent, silent for a month, answered enquiries on Monday and Tuesday, and CEAC dates moved with the replies. A named plaintiff there, interviewed on 29 January, was emailed Tuesday for a re-interview on Wednesday, one day's notice, with no medical requested. Tbilisi phoned and emailed a diversity visa selectee who is not a plaintiff, interviewed on 11 August, for a second interview on 23 September, asking for financial support evidence and housing arrangements. Yerevan gave a February spouse case an October re-interview with a new medical and updated tax records; that petitioner is registered in a pending class suit. At Islamabad three plaintiffs in the same suit report re-interview invitations. Five of the six callbacks are plaintiffs. The sixth is the first confirmed non-plaintiff callback at a post that had none before.

The other side of the same day

An applicant with a 22 September spouse-visa interview at Islamabad, never emailed, was turned away at the window and told a new date could be next month or four months off; staff said about one in ten arrivals that day had not been notified. That is the ninth turned-away case we hold. Mumbai applicants say nobody has received a new letter; Manila says 1 October is not a guaranteed restart; Frankfurt pulled a 17 September K-1 date. A circulating claim that interviews are paused until the end of October has no document behind it.

Deadline and calendar

The judge in the diversity case reportedly does not expect every remaining case to be finished by 30 September, and asked instead whether the interviews already scheduled can be completed by then, returning to it on Wednesday. In the family case the government has said it will go to the appeals court on 25 September if the district judge has not ruled on its stay.

Where the numbers stand

Ninety-one cancellation reports across 30 posts. Sixty were September appointments and three have replacement dates. Ten confirmed pairs. Ten records added and one updated: a New Delhi student case from August that resolved to approved. Post-by-post status is on the pause status page, where Tashkent, Tbilisi, Islamabad and Yerevan changed today. The figures are crowdsourced and anonymised; they describe what people chose to report.