Immigrant Visa Pause Update, Oct 2: Tbilisi Hands Back Passports Without Visas Despite "Issued", Rio Calls Thirty January Families
Post by post
| Embassy | Status | What happened |
|---|---|---|
| Tbilisi | No decision | DV applicants told to collect passports without visas while CEAC says Issued |
| Rio de Janeiro | Called back | Thirty EB families from January emailed re-interviews for after 20 October |
| Tokyo | Issued | Non-pause IR1 issued 1 October with no second interview |
| Dakar | Called back | Non-plaintiff parent case re-interview 19 October, in refusal order |
| Cairo | Called back | Re-interview emails to January family cases, one preparer counts eighteen |
| Bangkok | Cancelled | 27 October IR and EB interviews pushed to no date, relayed |
| Dhaka | No decision | Non-plaintiff February spouse case touched 1 October, no email |
| Bogota | No decision | Self-booking emails going unanswered for some |
| Manila | Called back | June K-1 called back with a financial checklist; October cancelled |
This covers Thursday into Friday morning. Court matters are secondhand, marked with an asterisk.
Issued on the screen, empty in the hand
A diversity visa applicant at Tbilisi, not a plaintiff, had a second interview, saw CEAC change to Issued and was told the visa had been printed. On 1 October the post messaged applicants to collect their passports "without visas" and said a decision would follow. The passport came back with nothing in it while CEAC still read Issued, and other Tbilisi applicants report the same. This is the second time this week a status has run ahead of a document: a Juárez spouse approved on 21 August watched Issued revert to Ready after six weeks with no passport. The guide now says it plainly: a CEAC status is not a visa until the passport is back with the foil in it, so keep the screenshots. The court in the diversity visa case has reportedly ordered ten extra days of processing beyond the fiscal year, after the government asks for a short stay to organise, with status reports three times a week*. Whether the Tbilisi passports are what that order reaches, nobody at the post is saying.
Rio calls thirty families, all from January
On 29 September about thirty employment-based families at Rio were emailed re-interviews for after 20 October. Every one had a first interview in January. A few employment re-interviews were held on 29 and 30 September at short notice. Nothing comparable has reached February or later; a February spouse case is still Refused with an April touch and was told cases go in order. The post told callers it is organising its backlog and grouping cases by whether the medical is still valid. October K-1 appointments there were cancelled last week.
Three more callbacks for non-plaintiffs
Dakar emailed a Guinean parent case interviewed two days into the pause, not a plaintiff, with a 19 October re-interview, a questionnaire and a request for a police certificate from a country she once lived in, and said it is calling people in the order they were refused. Cairo is emailing family cases first interviewed in January, including people who never wrote in; one preparer counts eighteen, and a spouse re-interviewed this week has no outcome yet. Manila called back a K-1 interviewed on 15 June, whose passport has been held since, with a list of financial items the beneficiary is expected to show. Dhaka touched a non-plaintiff February spouse case on 1 October, after January cases on the 29th and 30th, with no emails to anyone. At Bogota the self-booking route is failing for some: five working days of silence, a help-desk ticket, a request to resend the 221(g) letter, and still no date.
Tokyo issues without the second interview
A spouse from a non-pause country, verbally approved at Tokyo on 12 August and then Refused, was emailed on 18 August for an additional interview at five days' notice the couple could not make. Nothing else was asked. On 30 September the case moved to administrative processing, on 1 October to Issued, and the passport went into the post on the 2nd. Fifty days from interview to issuance, with the public-charge interview skipped by circumstance. Against that, Bangkok pushed its 27 October immigrant and employment interviews to no date, relayed from a community group, and Madrid told a July applicant by phone that all immigrant visas are paused everywhere.
Work visas
A Chennai H-1B renewal interviewed 3 September answered the social-media email within half an hour and was Approved on the 17th, Issued on the 24th, passport on the 26th. A Toronto H-1B interviewed 17 August with a 221(g) marked "nothing required" has had the passport back without a visa and no contact for six weeks. A London K-1 refused on public-charge grounds in June resubmitted finances three months ago and has only date changes.
By the numbers
17 cases added and 1 updated, 3,667 in the dataset. One cancellation row added, the furthest-out October date yet. The status-by-embassy page covers 46 posts with 12 rows changed; the re-interview guide gained the Issued warning and Dakar's police-certificate request.