Immigrant Visa Pause Update, October 15, 2026: The Enforcement Hearing as Applicants Describe It, Three Bogota Outcomes in a Day, Naples Reschedules August, and Islamabad's First Re-Interview Email

Thirty-seven records went into the tracker today from 48 threads and 10 re-checked ones, the status table has 15 rows changed, and the week's picture is two-sided. In New York the enforcement hearing on the pause ruling happened on 14 October, and the account applicants relay from the courtroom is of a court asking why about 706 of roughly 43,000 pause refusals have been re-adjudicated in eight weeks, and getting no week-by-week figures back. At Bogota, the same day, three cases ended well: a spouse approved at the window, the joint-sponsor case from 6 October issued in eight days, and the EB-3 family told on Monday that no visa number existed reading Issued on Tuesday. Naples began rescheduling its August cancellations. Islamabad sent its first re-interview email with a three-item list.

The hearing, as applicants describe it

We have not read the docket, so this is a community docket summary* from an applicant who sat through the 14 October hearing. The court opened on the pace: about 706 cases adjudicated since the 21 August vacatur against roughly 43,000 refused under the pause, and asked whether the government was deliberately slowing the order. The government cited training and new internal processes and said the rate was rising, but had no figures beyond its earlier declaration to show it. It also argued that the pending appeal removed the district court's authority to grant further relief, which the court rejected. The exchange applicants found most significant came when the court asked plaintiffs' counsel what relief for non-plaintiffs could look like; an opt-in structure was floated, without detail. Plaintiffs were directed to file a proposed structure for status reports by noon on 15 October, and the court said an order would follow shortly.

Two numbers from the community's own arithmetic are worth carrying because applicants will see them everywhere this week: 706 adjudications over 37 business days is about 19 a day worldwide, and 388 of the 706 were refusals. Both come from the government's 6 October declaration as summarised by applicants, not from anything we have verified, and the first-hand reports on this site are not a rate: people post approvals more readily than refusals.

Bogota: three outcomes in a day

The post that has moved fastest since the ruling produced the day's clearest results. A non-plaintiff spouse was approved at the window after a re-interview that checked police, birth and marriage certificates and surname-change papers, then asked about her job, her assets in dollars, her education, her career plans, benefits, debts and every place she had lived for six months or more; the petitioner was asked about his job, his education, whether he could add her to his health insurance, and the value of his property. Passport promised in two days.

The 6 October case that was sent away for a joint sponsor, because the petitioner's 2025 return showed a negative adjusted gross income under the foreign earned income exclusion, emailed the sponsor's I-864 and tax papers the same day. On the morning of 14 October CEAC moved from Refused to Administrative Processing, and after lunch to Issued, a week before the medical expires. A document request at a second interview is not a refusal; this one cleared in eight days without a further appointment.

The EB-3 family told on 13 October that the case was approvable but that no visa numbers were available in the category read Issued the next day. Either a number was found or the officer's remark was about the broader category; the family has not been told which, and is waiting for the passports. Against all of this, applicants first interviewed in late January, February and March say they are still without second-interview dates while the post reaches cases whose medicals are about to expire, and the self-rescheduling portal is faulty. One relayed count puts about 80 immigrant interviews on 15 October with most approved.

Naples, Islamabad, Bangkok and the lists

• Naples rescheduled an IR-1 cancelled for 26 August to 28 October, with others the applicant knows. The email asks for new CEAC uploads on financials, assets, bank statements, health insurance, job offers or possible employment and proof of residence, and adds proof of English proficiency and professional qualifications "if available". Neither has appeared in a written list before. The cancellation tracker has the row.
• Islamabad sent a re-interview email on 14 October asking only for a valid passport, two photographs and an updated medical. Plaintiff status is not stated, so the row stays at movement, unclear who.
• Bangkok runs re-interviews on Tuesdays, about four a week by one observer's count; on 13 October two were approved and two refused, one for public charge and one for public charge and domicile. Applicants called in are told to upload the refreshed documents to CEAC first; one was sent out of the building mid-check to do so. An EB-3 refused solely for the pause has had no instruction at all.
• On joint sponsors: one post asked after a re-interview for the sponsor's IRS tax return transcripts with a note that 1040s are not accepted. It is the return transcript, downloaded by the sponsor from the IRS, not the account transcript. The re-interview guide now carries all four lists.

Everything else, post by post

• Guatemala City: callers were told on 13 October that the post would start reaching out to pause applicants. Nobody had heard anything by 15 October.
• Dhaka: still disputed. One observer says applicants with unexpired medicals were called back and nearly all refused again; another, in a large group, says nobody has been called.
• Tbilisi slow, no employment-based visas issued. Tokyo: an IR-1 for a long-term Brazilian resident of Japan, refused under the pause, has had no meaningful contact. Ulaanbaatar is calling re-interviews in date order, all non-plaintiffs, relayed. Rio de Janeiro: one applicant calls it active, another says full stop.
• Manila: K-1s cancelled for 27 August, 1 September and 15 September still have no dates; a K-1 applicant notes only London, Warsaw and Budapest have rescheduled K-1 interviews. Sydney and Kathmandu add waiting cases with nothing since August and February.
• Frankfurt: the 18 August K-1 says finances were never discussed; the wait was social media review. San Jose: the 8 October second interview took twenty minutes and the file now goes to a second reviewer.
• Nonimmigrant: a British citizen's H-1B at London went Refused, Approved and Issued within two days of a 5 October interview that asked whether all listed social media accounts were public; an H-1B at Dublin for an Irish-resident Indian citizen got a 221(g) social media slip on 6 October and the passport back the next afternoon. Both fit the pattern in the white slip guide: the slip is the review, not a decision.

What to do with this

• If your second interview ends with a document request, send it the same day and watch CEAC. Bogota's joint-sponsor case cleared in eight days without another appointment.
• If your post tells you by phone to come in, upload the refreshed documents to CEAC before the day. Bangkok checks before you reach the window.
• An order on enforcement is expected shortly. Nothing in it changes what to bring; the guide and your post's row on the status-by-embassy table are the practical pages. If your report would change a row, add your case.

*Court items are summarised from applicants' accounts; we have not read the filings. Every figure here is from community-reported, anonymised cases. Not legal advice; not affiliated with the U.S. Department of State.