Immigrant Visa Pause Update, Oct 9: Public Charge Refusals at Second Interviews in Johannesburg and Paris, Casablanca and Islamabad Call Non-Plaintiffs, Hearing Stays on 14 October

This covers Thursday and Friday, a day and a half of reports because the collector ran late. The court first: the government asked to push the 14 October show-cause hearing to the following week and to appear remotely; the judge denied both the same day and ordered an in-person appearance.* The plaintiffs filed their opposition to the stay at the appeals court on 8 October, arguing among other things that the judgment does not itself require a fresh public charge assessment of every remanded case.* The California class-action hearing on 8 October has no outcome reported yet. Court items are asterisked and come from community docket summaries.

Two refusals at second interviews

Until this week every first-hand second-interview report from a non-plaintiff spouse ended in approval or a document request. Two did not. At Johannesburg on 9 October a Ghanaian spouse of a US-born citizen, petitioner earning about $92,000 with insurance for herself and two children and confirmation he could be added, was questioned from the new public charge form. When asked whether the petitioner had ever received benefits he answered truthfully that she had received food assistance and WIC after a 2017 birth, into 2018. The interview ended there: a 212(a)(4) worksheet citing the totality of circumstances, a second 221(g) marking the case back in administrative processing, no documents reviewed, and advice to consult a lawyer. Commenters note the consular manual lists food assistance and WIC as not relevant to public charge. At Paris the same week a pause-country national living in France, F11 family case first interviewed in June and told everything looked fine, was phoned for a re-interview and questioned almost entirely on his own salary, savings (under 5,000 euros) and assets rather than on a petitioner and joint sponsor earning five times the requirement; the email that followed had one box ticked, public charge, and no explanation. Both cases are in the re-interview guide, alongside a Western European approval on 8 October where the same officer who issued the August 221(g) walked through job, income, insurance, benefits history, education, experience, a job offer letter and housing.

Callbacks: Casablanca, Islamabad, Frankfurt, Rio, Managua

Casablanca phoned a non-plaintiff IR1 first interviewed 20 January on 8 October with a second interview on 20 October, the post's first dated non-plaintiff instruction: bring everything from before and "anything that helps" on public charge, no list; medical redone on 14 October at the full $400. Islamabad, in two separate relayed accounts, emailed applicants first interviewed between 21 and 26 January on 7-8 October for dates between 15 and 19 October, five or six people in one telling; nobody has posted the email yet, and a 3 February case has nothing. Frankfurt emailed second interviews on 8 and 9 October to a CR1 held since August for an insurance estimate and the household's returns, and to a Thai spouse first interviewed 17 February whose family lives elsewhere in Europe and must travel at a week's notice; rescheduling was refused. Rio, which is working chronologically through January and February, gave a 9 April IR1 a 28 October date on 8 October after a senator's office relayed that the couple's second child is due in November, one day after the post had said there are no exceptions. Managua, a first report, gave an April CR1 a 30 October second interview. Tbilisi issued a parent visa on CEAC on 9 October a few days after a second interview on the parents' employability, assets and insurance.

Reschedules and non-movement

Stockholm rebooked a K-1 first interview cancelled for 21 September to 22 October, and a second K-1 the same day; London held a rescheduled interview on 9 October for a spouse first seen in January and handed over a 221(g) for an updated I-864, tax transcript and W-2 with the passport kept. One commenter counts five reschedules this week across Kazakhstan, Switzerland, Poland, Bangkok and London. Against that: four non-plaintiff IR1s cancelled for 27 August at Ciudad Juarez have nothing, and one rebooked from 14 August to 8 October arrived to find it cancelled at the door; Manila's 25 and 27 August and 1 September cancellations have nothing and nobody there has been seen interviewed this month; Buenos Aires' 23 September CR1 has a CEAC touch and no date; Mumbai, Montreal, Lagos, Tegucigalpa, Madrid and the Dominican Republic report nothing; Sydney's direct-filing IR1 from 2 September waits while pause-country second interviews continue; Ankara's February Iranian spouse and August Iraqi spouse have had no reply to four emails; Beirut applicants see no callback beyond the one on 2 October; Yaounde has sent only the automated email. Kingston is touching March and February cases on CEAC every few days without calling; Kathmandu moved many cases to a 6 October last-updated date in one bulk touch, with EB-3 phone calls relayed. Tokyo has held a 21 July applicant's passport since the documents went in. Nine cancellation rows and four new posts on the status-by-embassy page.

Outside the pause

Non-immigrant cases gave the cleanest numbers of the day. An H-1B with H-4 at Hyderabad on 15 September got a white 221(g) with one box, email all social media handles; emailed within the hour, Approved the next afternoon, Issued the day after, passport collected 21 September with no notification. An H-4 at the same post from 29 July, social media sent 29 August, is still Refused six weeks later. An O-1A in a white slip at London from 3 September had the passport recalled on 22 September and went Administrative Processing, Approved, Issued within eight days, visa in hand 2 October. A Chennai H-1B in administrative processing since 1 May over an expunged 2019 arrest, with a group mandamus filed in August, was asked for the passport on 29 September, read Approved on 5 October and Refused again on 6 October. An H-1B told "approved" at Monterrey on 21 September with a green slip has read Refused for two weeks with no 221(g) mentioned. A London B1/B2 for a Pakistani passport holder who arrived fifteen minutes late: approved in two minutes, passport back in four working days. A New Delhi O-1A applicant who owns the petitioning company was handed a 214(b) slip while the system shows 221(g), which blocks rebooking. A Chennai medical student was refused a B1/B2 for a hospital observership.

What the day adds

Sixty-two records added. Twenty-one rows rewritten (Johannesburg, Casablanca, Paris, Tbilisi, Stockholm, Frankfurt, Kingston, Kathmandu, Ankara, Beirut, Ciudad Juarez, Montreal, Buenos Aires, Tokyo, Islamabad, Rio de Janeiro, London, Sydney, Manila, Nairobi, Naples) and Managua, Yaounde, Tegucigalpa and Lagos added to the status-by-embassy page. Nine rows added to the cancellations tracker. The guide gains both refusals, three question lists and the Frankfurt cash-assistance email. Next in court: 14 October, in person.* Today's dataset is crowdsourced and anonymised.