Immigrant Visa Pause Update, October 19, 2026: Bangkok Issues Its First Visa Without a Second Interview, CEAC Dates Move for March to June Cases, Nairobi Reschedules Relayed, and Three More Cancellations Without Dates

Twenty-seven records went into the tracker today from 49 threads, ten rows on the status table changed and the table gains its 66th post. The day belongs to Bangkok, which has issued its first visa since the vacatur without calling the applicant back in, and which touched the CEAC files of March, April and June interviewees on the same morning. Elsewhere the picture is the familiar one: three more cancelled interviews with no replacement date, a Sydney case stuck on a medical report the doctor never sent, and relayed word of re-interviews at Nairobi.

Bangkok: a visa with no second interview

A Thai spouse interviewed on 30 June was handed the generic 221(g) under the pause. Her petitioner, a US service member, emailed the post in mid-July asking for an exception to policy on the basis of his assignment. A week later the post phoned her with two questions, whether she plans to work in the United States and whether she plans to use public benefits, and said the request was going to Washington. After the vacatur he wrote again asking for the same request to be treated as an expedite; the reply on 16 October said only that the post was doing its best. On the morning of 19 October the embassy called, then emailed, to say the visa was ready to be issued and to send the passport. No second interview, no new medical, since the June exam runs to December. The file was decided on the petitioner's finances alone: recent tax transcripts and bank statements showing transfers to his wife, plus the fact that she is already on his employer health plan. The hardship ground is particular, but the shape of the approval is not: it is the document-complete file that gets issued without a conversation.

The same morning, applicants first interviewed on 24 March, in April and in June, spouse and employment cases alike, saw their CEAC last-updated date move for the first time since their interviews. One applicant says the post's call came after exactly such a touch. The post is described as working February cases in order, phoning and re-interviewing on Tuesdays; a 24 February interview has heard nothing.

Post by post

• Nairobi: relayed on 18 October, three Ugandan IR1 cases originally caught by the 75-country pause were given second interviews in the week of 12 October and two approvals have followed. Secondhand, plaintiff status not stated. First-hand, an IR5 parent interviewed 5 March is still stuck, and a K-2 child about to age out cannot get past the post's auto-reply.
• Sydney: an IR1 interviewed 19 August went into 221(g) because the panel doctor had never forwarded the medical done two months earlier. It was submitted the next day, days before the worldwide suspension. CEAC showed case opened on 22 September and 8 October; nothing else, and the medical expires 16 December.
• Mumbai: a 31 August interview and a 17 September stepchild IR2, both rescheduled by the post, still have no dates. The child is in India with a caretaker; the petitioner is asking for a humanitarian reschedule.
• Tokyo: a 15 October appointment rescheduled on 29 September has no new date, and the visa navigator told a caller there is no movement in Japan.
• Manila: an 18 September interview cancelled on 30 August is still without a date; that medical expires 30 December.
• Warsaw and Paris: a K-1 applicant following the category says Hungary and Poland have more or less continued, London has held some K-1 interviews with mixed results, and France and Stockholm have rescheduled some cancelled ones. A Paris K-1 still has no new date.
• Montreal: an F3 case interviewed in May has an expired medical and no instruction; the advice is to raise a query through the scheduling portal.
• Kuwait City joins the table with an EB-3 case reporting no news.

Also noted

At Prague a B1/B2 parent approved at the window on 2 October never got the passport back; CEAC read Approved for two weeks, then flipped on 16 October to Application Received with no email or call. That status usually means the case has been reopened for further processing, not refused, but it is the first such reversal reported this month. Separately, an applicant with a 2018 arrest resolved as a wet reckless plea reports two 214(b) refusals this year, the first after a 221(g) for the police report; the officer at the second interview said current policy on drink-driving history is strict and suggested reapplying when it changes.

If your medical is running out

Sydney in December, Manila at the end of December, Montreal already expired: the rule from the cases so far holds. If the post has listed a new medical, do it now. If it has not, wait; Frankfurt accepted a medical valid only on the day the visa printed. If the post promised a referral and it has not come after a week, chase it. Every post has a row on the status-by-embassy page, and cancelled appointments can be added to the cancellation tracker, now sortable by post.