Immigrant Visa Pause Update, Oct 4: Dhaka Re-Medical Emails Reach January Cases, Manila Cancels Into October, Mumbai Holds F3 Passports
Post by post
| Embassy | Status | What happened |
|---|---|---|
| Dhaka | Called back | January IV applicants emailed for new medicals over 1-2 Oct, relayed, small number |
| Manila | Cancelled | 5 October cancelled; 24 Aug, 27 Aug and 29 Sept cancellations still have no date |
| Mumbai | No decision | F3 221(g)s from July and August: weekly CEAC touches, passports held, still Refused |
| Beirut | Called back | Thursday's CR-1 second interview confirmed for 20 October by the post's email |
| London | Covered | Second-hand: of three re-interviews known to one group, one passed, rest public charge |
| Hyderabad | Refused | B-1/B-2 reapplication by a parent with ten-year US ties refused 214(b) |
This covers Friday afternoon into Saturday morning. A quiet day on the pause: no new approvals, one relayed callback, one more month of cancellations at Manila. Anything second-hand is marked.
Dhaka emails January cases for new medicals
Relayed from a Bangladeshi community group rather than first-hand: over 1 and 2 October several immigrant visa applicants first interviewed in January, across categories, received emails from the embassy asking them to redo their medical examination. The emails arrived without a prior inquiry, which is the pattern that preceded second interviews at Dakar and Beirut. Two cautions. The number is small, and a 27 January applicant in the same thread has had nothing and objected to the word "many". And nobody has said whether the recipients are plaintiffs. Until a non-plaintiff reports an email first-hand, the Dhaka row on the status-by-embassy page moves to "unclear" rather than "some". It is still the first contact of any kind reported for Dhaka's January cohort beyond CEAC touches.
Manila cancels 5 October; nothing rescheduled
An applicant with a 5 October interview at Manila was cancelled on Friday or Saturday and says October dates are being cancelled widely. Meanwhile the August and September cancellations we hold at this post, 24 August, 27 August and 29 September, still have no replacement dates, and one applicant who asked the scheduling site three different questions about resumption got the same scripted reply three times. A rumour circulating that the training pause is over in the Philippines and the post is clearing its backlog from September 2025 onward is contradicted by the fresh cancellations. Applicants there now expect nothing before mid-November. Two rows added to the cancellations tracker.
Mumbai: F3 passports held since July, status unchanged
Outside the pause countries, the sibling category at Mumbai is stuck in a different way. Four F3 applicants interviewed between 9 July and 3 August were handed 221(g)s for sponsor documents, mostly IRS transcripts for the sponsor and joint sponsor, submitted them with their passports at the VAC in July and August, and have watched CEAC last-updated change at roughly weekly intervals until mid-to-late September with no change from Refused. One reports sixteen touches, four reading Refused and twelve Ready, and no decision. The touches stopped around 22 September for the earliest case. Documents are being reviewed; visas are not being printed. The passports stay with the post.
How long the training pause runs
A useful correction circulating on the threads. The court filings gave posts 60 days to complete the new public-charge training, which several applicants read as the pause ending on 31 October. The filings say the 60 days cover the training only; to resume interviews a post must then be certified in person by an official from the Bureau of Consular Affairs, and no timeline has been given for certification. One applicant quotes an immigration lawyer putting the realistic wait at another two to three months. Treat 31 October as the earliest the first posts could reopen, not the date they will.
Small items
Thursday's Beirut CR-1 confirmed its second interview is 20 October, from the post's own email. Second-hand from a London group: of three re-interviewed cases known there, one was approved and the others refused on public charge, while DCF applicants in London are still waiting. Two parents refused 214(b) for visitor visas this week, one at Mumbai (self-sponsored widow, five minutes, no documents checked), one at Hyderabad (reapplying after a four-month stay last year, children in the US on student statuses for a decade), both without a 221(g). A Kathmandu employment-based megathread for October opened with no reports yet.
What the day adds
Fourteen records added, one updated. Dhaka and Manila rows rewritten, London row annotated. Two Manila cancellations added. The re-interview guide is unchanged today. Today's dataset is crowdsourced and anonymised.