Immigrant Visa Pause Update, October 18, 2026: Four Visas Among 216 Plaintiffs in the Government's Own Count, Yerevan's First Issuance, London Works Through Its Paused Cohort, and Bangkok Asks for a Fresh DS-260

Nineteen records went into the tracker today from 43 threads, nine rows on the status table changed, and the table gains its 65th post. The day's frame is a number from the government's own sworn declaration, as applicants summarise it: of 216 plaintiffs in the parallel class suit who were refused under the pause, 4 have visas, 2 were refused again, 62 were contacted and 27 have re-interviews scheduled, eight weeks after the vacatur. Set against that, the first-hand reports keep arriving one at a time: Yerevan's first issuance, London working through its paused June and July cohort, Bangkok asking for a fresh DS-260, and Tashkent's promised medical referral still missing after four weeks.

The declaration, as applicants read it

Community docket summary*: the department says every immigrant visa post has resumed processing and was instructed on 21 September to follow its reconsideration guidance. Posts were told to prioritise re-interviews for named plaintiffs in a set order by lawsuit. The declaration cites a Stockholm re-interview on 22 October after a new medical and a Hong Kong re-interview on 27 October, which is how Hong Kong joins the table today. It also says the department's next steps depend on the outcome, the reasoning and the timing of the pending appellate stay, a line applicants read as room for further delay even if the stay is denied. Separately, the government's 15 October appellate reply asks, at minimum, to limit the reconsideration remedy to named plaintiffs. No order from either court has been reported.

Yerevan: a plaintiff's visa in six business days

An IR1 first interviewed 26 February, whose petitioner belongs to a group lawsuit, was re-interviewed in the second week of October. Three questions: what medical coverage and what job he would have in the United States, whether he had used government assistance in Armenia, and whether he supports anyone in his family. The petitioner had been emailed to upload the 2025 return to CEAC and added a savings statement and the car title unasked; the officer kept both. CEAC went Refused to Administrative Processing the next day and Issued the day after, the pickup email came four business days later, and he is now in the United States. It is the first issuance reported at the post, and it sits beside a non-plaintiff interviewed 8 May who has had only a CEAC touch.

Post by post

• London: applicants paused from late June and early July bookings have just received new dates, and originals from late August and early September are being heard this week and next, about six to eight weeks late. Two direct-consular-filing cases are stuck differently: one cannot book because the portal says the system is busy, the other sits in a documentless 221(g) from August with the passport held.
• Bangkok: re-interviewed applicants are being told to update and re-sign the DS-260, which now asks about siblings, and to upload fresh proof of assets. Sign the form before uploading or the upload fails. The re-interview guide has the sequence.
• Tashkent: the EB-1 family re-interviewed 23 September is still waiting for the medical referral the officer promised; the panel physician will not book without it and the embassy answers only that the case is in administrative processing. Their local group knows of no issuance at the post since the vacatur.
• Dhaka: one applicant adds that the re-interview call came eight days after the new medical, which fits the no-interview route reported yesterday.
• Mumbai: no cancelled interview has a new date on 18 October; a 22 September IR1 joins the cancellation tracker, and calls to the post get generic replies.
• Manila: a hotline agent said in September that the training would end by the end of October. An applicant whose passport went to the courier six weeks ago, medical now expired, is still Refused.
• Stockholm and Hong Kong: re-interviews on 22 and 27 October for named plaintiffs, known only from the court filing.
• Nonimmigrant: an L-1A blanket approved at Chennai on 13 October with the passport back on the 18th, seven questions on company size, salary and how many people the applicant manages; an O-1A approved at Calgary after a USCIS denial and two RFEs, asked what makes the applicant qualify and shown nothing but the licence.

What to do with this

• If you are asked to update the DS-260 before a re-interview, sign the revised form first and upload documents second.
• If a re-interview ends with a promised medical referral, email the post for it after a week and copy the panel physician; Tashkent's has not arrived in four weeks.
• Your post's row is on the status-by-embassy table; Hong Kong is new today. 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.