Immigrant Visa Pause Update, Oct 11: Frankfurt Issues a Pause-Country Spouse Visa Two Days After the Second Interview, Tokyo Cancels Mid-October Interviews, Benefits-History Fear Spreads
Post by post
| Embassy | Status | What happened |
|---|---|---|
| Frankfurt | Issued | Pause-country CR1: first interview 2 Jul, second 6 Oct, visa issued 8 Oct |
| Tokyo | Cancelled | Mid-October immigrant interviews cancelled by portal notice, no new dates |
| London | Covered | Relayed: K-1 interviews since 1 Oct about half approved, no leniency for young couples |
| Mexico City | No decision | TN told approved 2 Oct, passport kept; CEAC Refused with an 8 Oct touch |
This covers Friday into Saturday, a weekend window with little new movement and a lot of worry. The enforcement hearing is Tuesday 14 October, in person.* Court items are asterisked and come from community docket summaries.
Frankfurt: the cleanest issued case so far
A pause-country national with a CR1 had her first interview at Frankfurt on 2 July and was refused 221(g) on nationality. Her second interview was 6 October and the visa was issued on 8 October, with the immigrant package due on the 12th. The questions were entirely financial: her medical insurance plan (she named the petitioner's employer family plan and showed a copy of his card; enrolment is conditional on a Social Security number), her education, whether she holds bank accounts (a statement showing about $30,000 was ready and was asked for), the car loan's size and term, nothing on credit cards, no property. The petitioner earns about three times minimum wage. It is the fullest list from an issued pause case and is in the re-interview guide, with two smaller insurance points from the same day: one applicant satisfied the question with only the name of an unsubsidised plan and its monthly cost, and an F11 applicant has private-insurer quotations ready for a second interview that has not yet been scheduled.
Benefits history, after Johannesburg
Thursday's Johannesburg refusal over the petitioner's 2017 food assistance and WIC has travelled. A petitioner whose spouse's re-interview is the week of 12 October, and who once received food assistance and Medicaid, is adding a joint sponsor with high income and no benefits history; the thread is split on whether adding one a week out signals a change in circumstances, and whether to volunteer the history or answer only what is asked. Another petitioner who had Medicaid and lived in subsidised housing as a student, now an engineer on a six-figure salary, asks what will be weighed. The only guidance anyone can point to is the Department's own page listing cash assistance and long-term institutional care as the benefits that matter, and the observation that the Johannesburg officer asked the question and ended the interview on the answer. We have one refusal on this ground and one approval (London, 2 October) where the question was asked and answered no; that is not enough to say how the rule is being applied.
Cancellations and the rest
Tokyo is cancelling mid-October immigrant interviews: an applicant due in the week of 12 October found the mass "rescheduled, do not appear" notice in the scheduling site's message centre on Saturday, with no new date; one row added to the cancellations tracker. Relayed from a London K-1 group: interviews held since 1 October are running about half approved, half not, with no leniency for young couples. Applicants asked whether re-interview invitations always start with a phone call; the answer is no, some posts email only. A K-1 at an unnamed post has been in 221(g) since July for an expired medical, now renewed, while the petitioner worries about a stay-at-home beneficiary under the new rules. A joint-sponsor case issued at a 14 September re-interview reports the officer wanted IRS transcripts and a wet-signed I-864, not 1040s. A TN applicant told "approved" at Mexico City on 2 October, passport kept and asked only for a 2005 theft report, has read Refused on CEAC with an 8 October touch, the same shape as the Monterrey H-1B.
What the day adds
Eight records added. Frankfurt, Tokyo and London rows updated on the status-by-embassy page. One cancellation added. The guide gains the Frankfurt list and the insurance evidence points. Tuesday is the hearing.* Today's dataset is crowdsourced and anonymised.