Immigrant Visa Pause Update, Oct 12: San José Re-Interviews a Pause Case Off an "Emergency Priority List", a Passport-Only Second Interview First-Hand, Guangzhou Asks for a US Financial Plan

This covers Saturday into Sunday, a quiet window that still produced a first report from a new post and a first-hand example of a pattern we had only heard second-hand. The enforcement hearing is Tuesday 14 October, in person.* Court items are asterisked and come from community docket summaries.

San José, Costa Rica: an "emergency priority list"

A Nicaraguan national living in Costa Rica, a spouse case documentarily qualified on 31 December, was interviewed at San José on 17 March and refused 221(g) with the pause named as the reason. On 30 September the post emailed a second interview for 8 October: bring everything, redo the medical, obtain a new apostilled Costa Rican police certificate, and bring proof of health insurance and of where the couple will live. At the medical on 5 October the panel physician's desk said the embassy had sent an "emergency priority list" whose appointments were to be booked immediately, and on interview day the intake desk held the same list. The questions were the familiar set: the petitioner's benefits history (none), the applicant's checking and savings balances, assets, debts, work plans, study plans, how long ago the couple met, and a copy of their son's birth certificate was kept. Insurance was not asked about. The passport stayed with the post, the only missing item being a Nicaraguan police certificate, and the officer said that once it arrives the case goes to the next step and "hopefully you won't have to come back for another interview". Not a plaintiff. Full list in the re-interview guide; San José is now on the status page.

"Bring only your passport", first-hand

Friday's passport-only requests were all relayed. On Saturday a petitioner wrote that her husband, first interviewed on 20 January, has a second interview scheduled and was told by the post to bring only his passport, with no emailed document list. She reads the short instruction as a bad sign. The two relayed cases where the passport alone was requested had no interview at all; this one still does. The sensible response is the same either way: bring the whole file, the insurance evidence and the updated financials, because a post that has not asked for them can still ask at the window.

Guangzhou: "evidence of financial plan in the USA"

An EB-2 NIW applicant, a Bangladeshi researcher interviewed at Guangzhou in May 2025 and placed in administrative processing after supplying a police certificate and CV that June, was emailed this month for a second interview and told to bring evidence of a financial plan in the United States, plus an updated police clearance and a new medical. He has no US job offer, which the NIW does not require; the question is about self-support for a family of three. Applicants who have answered it suggest twelve months of statements, an income letter, tax records, property and investments, and a one-page plan for the first year. Seventeen months in processing before the second interview is the longest run in our records for this route.

Benefits history: two more data points

A UK spouse who had claimed UK benefits while working, with children and a degree, was approved after the public-charge additions; she credits the petitioner's high earnings, an established US home and medical insurance. Benefits received abroad are not US public benefits, but it is the first first-hand approval in which the beneficiary's own benefits came up. At another post an applicant asked whether her petitioner had received anything said he may have as a minor, and the officer seemed satisfied; that case waits on a renewed medical and an IRS transcript. The figure applicants are quoting to each other, 388 refusals among about 706 re-adjudications, is not a rumour: it is the Department's own declaration in the 6 October court filing,* covering 21 August to 30 September, with 318 approved. The first-hand reports collected here skew toward approvals, because applicants post good news more readily than refusals, so our outcome counts are not a rate.

Still waiting

San Salvador: an IR1 cancelled for August and at least one other case stuck since August report nothing, so the post joins the status page with no movement. Paris: two K-1s cancelled for 29-30 September have no dates. Buenos Aires: the 23 September CR1 still has nothing. Frankfurt: two K-1s interviewed 13 and 18 August sit with passports kept and CEAC stuck on Ready and Refused through repeated touches. Rio de Janeiro, on the other hand, moved a family case to Issued with an email asking for the passports. And two pre-pause 221(g) cases, a July 2025 interview with nothing requested and a 13 January interview told in June that "the case is pending Immigrant Visa Pause", are asking whether they fall inside the re-adjudication order at all, since it covered cases refused solely under the pause.

Non-immigrant notes

At Islamabad, O-3 dependants were refused 221(g), had their B1/B2 visas cancelled, and were told the O-1 principal, who changed status inside the United States, must appear in person before derivative visas issue; an H-1B white slip there has been pending since 22 June. An O-1 elsewhere moved from 221(g) to a fraud-prevention review that is phoning the petitioner. And a UK citizen whose ESTA renewal was refused, with a wife and child in the United States, has gone into administrative processing a second time, at Belfast on 6 October, after a nine-month London processing that ended in ineligibility.

Dataset: 19 records added today, 3,915 in all. Status page: 62 posts, with San José, San Salvador and Guangzhou new. Cancellation log: 168 rows. See the Guangzhou tracker and the cancellation log.