Immigrant Visa Pause Update, October 22, 2026: Re-Interview Letters Keep Coming After the Stay, Islamabad Asks for Insurance Costs, Mumbai and Manila Say Everything Is on Hold, and the Government Answers Tomorrow

Two days after the appeals court's partial stay, the question applicants asked most was whether posts would stop sending re-interview letters. They have not. A spouse first interviewed at Tunis in March, told she was eligible but could not be issued under the pause, received a letter on 20 October for the first week of November. Another pause case was emailed a 20 November second interview on 22 October. Naples sent a second interview date to a pause-affected spouse this week, Dakar held a Guinean parent's second interview on 22 October, and Islamabad is both scheduling and conducting re-interviews. The existing appointments are going ahead too, and are being decided under the current rules. Thirty-nine records were added today; the status table now covers 69 posts, with Guayaquil new.

Islamabad's new 221(g): the insurance itself

Islamabad's re-interviews have produced a narrower kind of 221(g). Two accounts from this week describe interviews that went well, no public-charge refusal, and a slip about health insurance. A spouse case was asked for the costs and a summary of the health plan after the petitioner showed only insurance cards; the policy was a limited-benefit sickness-and-accident plan at about 270 dollars a month, probably not compliant with the marketplace rules, and the petitioner is now asking whether to buy comprehensive cover and resubmit. A parent couple who were not refused presented a marketplace quote of about 1,800 dollars a month and were asked to show how the family would pay it, although the sponsoring household earns well above the guideline. The advice other applicants give is a signed statement from the sponsor committing to the premiums by automatic draft, with bank statements, plus a travel-insurance quote for the gap before a standard plan starts.

The quotes themselves remain the hard part. A petitioner who tried to buy a marketplace plan for a spouse first interviewed in February could not, because she has no visa, and most insurers will not quote a person without a social security number. One petitioner called ten and found one that would; another generated a quote in the spouse's name by opening a life-event request in the employer's benefits portal and cancelling it. Nobody who has been through a second interview recommends buying a plan before the visa. The re-interview guide has the 22 October additions, including Dakar's three questions (education, assets, who the applicant will live with) and Tunis asking for a new medical and no further financial documents.

Where the hold is total

At posts that were never on the pause list the worldwide training hold is still absolute, and today the posts said so themselves. The visa service desk told an IR1 applicant at Mumbai that all immigrant visa appointments are on hold and rescheduled, with no resumption date; a caller got the same answer, an IR5 petitioner's 5 October email got the same boilerplate, and the consulate's own reply to a family fourth-preference case used the same words. A family third-preference case in India whose re-interview, after a year-long medical clearance, was cancelled has a medical expiring on 2 January.

Manila is the clearest case of medical 221(g)s stuck behind the hold. A parent interviewed on 30 July had the medical transmitted on 11 September and the missing document received on 17 September; on 7 October the post said the delay was due to the global training initiative, CEAC was touched on 8 October and still reads Refused, and the medical expires on 11 December. A 6 August parent with a pink slip for a sputum test handed in the passport on 24 September and was told by inquiry that the training is still under way; that medical expires on 24 December. A third sputum case was told the post does not know when to accept the passport. On the K-1 side, the last case to show In Transit to Manila was at the end of July.

Guayaquil joins the table today. A 221(g) case still reads Refused with its last update on 30 September and the post answers neither emails nor calls; a family case given a 221(g) for a household member's I-864A sent the papers in mid-August and saw only a CEAC touch on 5 October; and a chat group of about thirty Ecuadorian applicants reports that none has been contacted. An applicant at Kingston describes the same silence. Dhaka applicants canvassing for any re-interview, passport or medical request found none, and at Paris an employment-based case documentarily qualified on 12 June has no interview letter while the scheduling tool still shows June. At Bogota, which issued its first employment-based re-interview case yesterday, an IR1 qualified on 20 March is still waiting for a first interview letter.

K-1s: late September waits, October cancellations

London has rebooked the K-1s it cancelled at the start of September but not the end: two applicants cancelled for 22 September had no new date on 22 October. A K-1 originally booked for 14 September was re-interviewed on 19 October and left with a 221(g) and no passport. In Brazil, K-1 cancellations have reached October: a 13 October interview was cancelled by email, and the applicant says November and December dates are being cancelled or affected too, with no clear answers; Brazilian K-1 cases are handled at Rio de Janeiro. At Casablanca a K-1 interviewed on 4 August and sent away to rebook over a missing translation still cannot book: the site offers no slot and suggests paying the fee again, while the post says by phone and email that it will send the date itself. Nothing has arrived in eleven weeks. All of this is on the cancellations page, which now holds 195 rows.

In Bangkok, two Thai spouse cases have re-interviews in the week of 26 October. One couple is bringing gap insurance, long-term plan quotes, employment letters on letterhead, every US tax transcript, proof of assets, a housing affidavit, correspondence with the child's prospective school and job postings for the applicant. The other is a retired-military household with pension income and three years of military medical cover for the spouse, worried mainly about domicile because they have no US home yet. After Bangkok's refusals last week, both are preparing for the insurance question first.

A rumour, and the real deadline

A claim circulating on social media from two lawyers that the global immigrant visa pause is over was dismissed by applicants today as hearsay repeated to drum up business. Nothing in today's records supports it: the posts that were never on the pause list are still telling applicants everything is on hold, and the re-interviews at pause posts are the same ones that have been running since early October. The real event is tomorrow. The district judge has ordered the government to say by 17:00 Eastern on Friday 23 October what effect the vacatur has on immigrant visas refused under the pause between January and August, and whether those applications will be processed again. That is a request for the government's position, not an order to reopen the roughly 43,000 cases, and the government has separately asked the appeals court to hear its appeal quickly. We will read the filing and summarise it in Saturday's post.

What to do this week

• If a re-interview letter arrives, it is still being honoured; cases emailed on 20 and 22 October have November dates.
• Carry evidence of the insurance itself: a personalised quote in the applicant's name or an employer letter confirming the spouse will be added, with the premium, plus a short signed statement on how it will be paid. Islamabad is now asking for exactly that in writing.
• Do not buy a plan before the visa; no second-interview account supports it, and most insurers will not sell one without a social security number.
• If the post told you to replace a joint sponsor and the affidavit section of the portal is locked, upload the new sponsor's documents under financial evidence with a note and bring the originals.
• Check your medical's expiry against the hold. Manila's July and August cases expire in December; ask the post in writing before rebooking the exam.
• Write to the post rather than call: the 221(g) email addresses page has the official inboxes, and the written replies, even boilerplate ones, are what applicants are now quoting back.

Every entry above is crowdsourced and anonymised; the status table links to each post's page.