Immigrant Visa Pause Update, Sept 29: Cairo Refuses Its First Re-Interviewed Spouse Cases on Public Charge, Rio Cancels October
This covers Sunday and Monday, one day of which came in through a broken collection and was re-read today. Court figures are as summarised by people who read the filings, marked with an asterisk.
Cairo: the first re-interviews, and the first refusals
Until now the second interview has ended three ways: approval, another 221(g), or a document request. On 28 September Cairo held what one applicant calls its first wave of spouse-visa re-interviews, and that applicant, a plaintiff whose January interview came one week after the pause began, was refused on the public-charge ground. He says everyone interviewed that day was refused. He had brought a health insurance plan, a job, a signed lease, a co-sponsor, savings and a good credit history, and had been told in January that the visa would have issued but for the pause. That is one applicant's account of one waiting room, and we hold it at medium confidence, but it is the first report of a whole session being refused, and it is in the re-interview guide now.
Three posts that skipped the interview
A spouse case in Brazil, interviewed in August and not a plaintiff, moved from Refused to Administrative Processing on the 28th and the same day got an email citing the 21 August order and asking for one thing: the passport, dropped at a service centre, no appointment, no documents, no second interview. A European post emailed a January spouse case to redo the expired medical and then ask for a date, with nothing on public charge. And Kathmandu, second-hand, phoned seven or more non-plaintiff diversity visa applicants on a Sunday to submit passports, their first interviews having already covered the public-charge topics. Kingston's questionnaire from last week is the fourth version. The pattern is that a post which has finished training decides for itself whether a case needs the window again.
Issued, and printed
The Dhaka diversity visa plaintiff issued on the 27th had his passport ready the next morning; his re-interview covered assets, income, education, housing plans and insurance. At Rio de Janeiro a spouse case refused in June had its second interview on 15 September and the visa on the 17th, upgraded from CR1 to IR1 because the marriage had passed two years. Another Rio spouse got an October date with a new medical. A Red Eagle plaintiff posted a visa in hand today, post unstated. Against that, a Guinean applicant re-interviewed at Dakar on the 28th got another 221(g) with the passport kept, and applicants at Rio interviewed in January, February, April and May have heard nothing.
October cancellations begin
Rio cancelled its October K-1 appointments on the 28th, the 6th and the 18th reported so far, while its September cancellations still have no dates. Tokyo turned a Japanese spouse away at the door on the 26th with no notice and told her there was no rescheduling; she found a 13 October slot in the online tool and booked it, expecting it to be cancelled again. Another Tokyo couple, rebooked to 10 September as a military filing, was turned away because the petitioner is no longer active duty. A 15 October direct-filing interview there was pulled today. Mumbai's 25 and 28 August and 4 and 11 September dates, Dhaka's 9, 20 and 29 September first interviews, a Bogota IR1 from 9 September and a Juarez date from the 14th all have nothing. Manila, second-hand from screenshots, began issuing re-interview dates to 221(g) cases on the 28th. Frankfurt gave a July refusal its first real reply in three months: cases are reviewed in the order they were refused.
Still waiting
A London sibling case approved verbally on 21 August was emailed for financial documents, phoned the next day, re-interviewed two days later with the same questions plus savings, and given a 221(g) that is still open. A Bogota K-1 verbally approved on 20 August has had its passport held for five weeks. A Madrid immigrant case has read Ready since 1 September. Lomé's auto-reply now says it is not processing immigrant or diversity visas at all. Bangkok, Cotonou, Islamabad and Almaty pause cases report no contact. An Istanbul H-1B couple had both passports and both approval notices retained for social-media vetting; a Cairo student in processing since July got the passport back after 45 days with a white slip and deferred the semester.
The court, secondhand*
The 28 September status report in the diversity visa case is said to show 672 re-interviews held and 523 scheduled since the 25th, zero new first interviews, and 610 approvals against 2,752 refusals, with the government's own caveat that many of the refusals are old decisions only now being entered. Four cases previously approved were refused. The government opposes reserving diversity visa numbers past tonight's deadline, citing a D.C. Circuit ruling that courts cannot extend it. In the CLINIC appeal the government missed a routine filing and has until 13 October to cure it.
By the numbers
26 cases added over the two days and 2 updated, 3,607 in the dataset. Twelve cancellation rows added: of 81 September appointment cancellations we hold, 8 have a replacement date, and the first 3 October cancellations are now recorded. The status-by-embassy page covers 42 posts, with Madrid, Lomé and Cotonou added and 12 rows changed.