Immigrant Visa Pause Update, Sept 30: DV Deadline Day, an Emergency Stay Request, and October Interviews Cancelled on Arrival
Post by post
| Embassy | Status | What happened |
|---|---|---|
| Lima | Issued | Diversity visa issued a day after a 28 September interview |
| London | Refused | Diversity visa couple refused on public charge at the window |
| Bucharest | Cancelled | Rebooked for the 29th, then turned back at the window |
| Kingston | Approved | Non-plaintiff called in by phone and told she is approved |
| Bogota | No decision | EB-2 cleared the re-interview; no visa numbers until October |
| Ciudad Juarez | Cancelled | 2 October interview pulled after the family flew in |
| Warsaw | No decision | EB-3 told all looks good, still handed a 221(g) |
| Manila | Called back | New dates for family and EB-3 cases, reported second-hand |
This covers Tuesday, the day before the diversity visa deadline, through this morning. Court matters are secondhand, marked with an asterisk; we have not read the filings.
Deadline day for diversity visas
Diversity visas cannot be issued after today, and the reports from the last 48 hours split three ways. Lima issued one applicant less than a day after a 28 September interview, and another who was called to an additional interview on the 25th. London refused a couple on the public-charge ground on the spot on the 29th, after five to ten minutes of questions about savings and job prospects, while another London applicant who brought insurance quotes, payslips and job applications was approved the week before. And Bucharest rebooked a selectee cancelled in August for the 29th, with a list of public-charge documents, then told her at the window after ninety minutes that a directive from Washington meant the interview could not take place. Frankfurt and Muscat applicants who cleared second interviews were still reading Ready or administrative processing this morning with their passports held. A Lima selectee interviewed in July who submitted documents on 7 August never heard back, and the one cancelled for 1 September was never rebooked.
The government asks the appeals court to stop the remanded cases*
On 29 September the government asked the Second Circuit for an emergency stay and an immediate administrative stay of the August ruling, and filed the routine statement it had missed. Its supporting declaration reportedly says the department does not want the 43,000 pause-refused cases reaching final adjudication before its new public-charge training, tools and revised medical forms are fully in place. There is no stay as of this writing. In the district court both sides agreed to move their responses on a possible completion deadline to 5 October. If a stay is granted, the re-interviews described below could stop; if your post has called you, the practical advice from applicants is to go.
Kingston calls by phone, and tells a non-plaintiff she is approved
A Jamaican applicant first interviewed in early June, not a plaintiff, was phoned with a day and a time and nothing in writing; when she missed the call the post rang her petitioner at work. The second interview covered employment plans, assets, property, and whether she or her sponsors had ever used public services in the United States. Her sponsor's income was sufficient, but the officer asked for the joint sponsor's latest W-2s, saying it would strengthen the file when a higher office reviews it. Her passport was taken and she was told she was approved. About twenty people were being re-interviewed, and the post is prioritising medicals close to expiry. The questions are in the re-interview guide.
Cleared the interview, no visa number
The Bogota EB-2 applicant given one business day's notice went on the 29th. Five to ten minutes: age, work, earnings, how much money he will bring, property at home. Nothing on health insurance. Then another 221(g), because no employment-based numbers were left in the fiscal year. The passport stays with the post until numbers return in October, and his medical expires on the 6th. The October visa bulletin, out the same day, moved some employment cut-offs backwards, which blocks an other-worker case at Kingston whose date was current last month. At Warsaw an EB-3 applicant from a non-pause country was told everything looked good and still left with a 221(g); he says everyone that morning did.
October cancellations spread
Ciudad Juárez pulled a 2 October spouse interview by email on the 29th, hours after the family had flown in for the medical. With Rio's 6 and 18 October and Tokyo's 15 October, that is four October cancellations in our rows. A Bangkok K-1 for 6 October was still standing yesterday. Manila, second-hand, began sending new dates to family-preference and EB-3 cases on the 28th while its K-1s stay frozen. Montreal touched pause cases from January and February on the 29th without emails. Tbilisi now answers with a template: cases are reviewed in the order they were refused.
By the numbers
20 cases added and 1 updated, 3,627 in the dataset. Five cancellation rows added. Per the plaintiffs' reply in the diversity visa case*, the department scheduled 86 new interviews against 4,456 re-interviews over the reporting period, and reported about 2,020 approvals for issuance against 1,788 refusals between 14 and 28 September. The status-by-embassy page covers 45 posts, with Ciudad Juárez, Montreal and Bucharest added and 12 rows changed.