Immigrant Visa Pause Update, Sept 25: Kathmandu Issues Eight, Bogota and London Send Re-Interview Emails to Non-Plaintiffs
This covers Tuesday evening through Friday evening, two collection days folded into one. Court matters are secondhand, from filings other people have read.
The first issuances since 21 August at Kathmandu
Sixteen diversity visa plaintiffs were re-interviewed at Kathmandu on 17 September. Their passports were kept, their redone medicals were forwarded on the 21st, and the last-updated date on their cases moved several times in the days after. Today eight of them went to Issued, one with three dependents. This is a group report from one community member rather than eight first-hand accounts, so we hold it at low confidence, but it is the first issuance at this post since the ruling. Non-plaintiffs were reportedly re-interviewed there on the 24th; none has an outcome yet.
Elsewhere the second interview is still ending in another 221(g). The employment-based plaintiff re-interviewed at Tashkent on the 23rd spent three hours at the post for fifteen minutes of questions and left with a new administrative-processing sheet and a promise of a medical referral by email. A spouse case interviewed fresh at Warsaw on the 21st was told everything looked fine, then handed a 221(g) with the passport kept, and has had no update or reply since. A diversity visa plaintiff at Brussels got a second 221(g) a week ago while two others interviewed today were approved at the window. At Dhaka, per one of the seven plaintiffs re-interviewed on the 17th, the six whose passports were returned went to Issued within a day or two; the one whose passport was kept is still waiting.
Bogota lets refused applicants book their own follow-up
On 23 September the immigrant visa unit at Bogota emailed refused applicants who are not plaintiffs in any suit: an EB-3 family interviewed 28 January, another interviewed 18 February, an F2A from 24 February, and a couple's parents from 27 January. The instruction is the same in every message: log into the scheduling system, book a follow-up appointment, redo the medical. Petitioners are told nothing is needed from them. The catch is that the old appointment blocks the calendar, so applicants must first file a no-show request citing the embassy's instruction and wait for an officer to open access. The January EB-3 family did that, was answered within a day, booked 13 October, and was then asked for financial documents covering savings, assets and debts for every applicant, including a child under two.
London: October dates, and the topics in the envelope
London rebooked its cancelled 1 and 2 September appointments on the 23rd, two spouse cases and two K-1s, all for 6 October, with the public-charge notice now described as mandatory rather than optional. It is also calling back people who were never cancelled. An IR1 not from a pause country, interviewed 5 August and sitting in administrative processing since, was emailed yesterday a second interview on 8 October with only the new public-charge statement to complete. Two employment-based applicants from pause countries, one interviewed in July and one in January, got October re-interviews with an attachment listing what to be ready to discuss: housing plan, employment plan, health insurance, assets and liabilities. A pause-country spouse case cancelled for 26 August still has no date, and a domicile submission made 72 days ago has had no answer. The re-interview guide now carries the Tashkent, Warsaw and London question lists.
Touches without emails
Case-last-updated changed on 22 to 24 September for refused spouse cases at Islamabad interviewed on 6, 17 and 27 February and 18 May, at Casablanca for a March CR1 after nine months of silence, at Addis Ababa for a March family in a batch that applicants say is not chronological, at Frankfurt alongside a reply to an inquiry, and at Cairo on the day an email was sent. None came with instructions. Lima told an applicant at the window it is scheduling again but gave no date; a diversity visa case cancelled there on 1 September is still on hold with five days left in the fiscal year. Casablanca's K-1 calendar reopened and one petitioner booked 27 October. Manila's K-1s from 15 and 22 September and Stockholm's from 24 August are still without dates.
Non-immigrant cases, briefly
An H-1B at Chennai on 21 September was asked for the letter and social-media URLs by email, sent them at midday, and went Refused, Approved, Issued on three consecutive days. A student at New Delhi refused on 23 August over an expiring I-20 sent two replacement forms and was issued on 15 September. An O-1 founder at Chennai went through two officers and an online search at the window and was approved four working days later. An L-1B at Mumbai on 17 September got a white slip with the passport handed back.
The court, secondhand
On 24 September the judge in the CLINIC case ordered the government to show cause why she should not set a firm deadline for finishing the remanded cases, noting some doubt that her judgment is being complied with. In Medani the plaintiffs asked the court to reserve unused diversity visa numbers before 30 September and called the new public-charge review structure a pause in different clothing. In Syed the judge left the hearing without entering a stay and may call the parties back. We have not read the filings.
By the numbers
37 cases added over the two days, 3,544 in the dataset. Of the 70 September appointment cancellations we hold, 7 now have a replacement date and 56 are still waiting. The status-by-embassy page has 33 posts today, with Addis Ababa and Brussels added and 13 rows changed.