Do government shutdowns affect immigration process?

[__immigrant__ 58]

My petition was sent to NVC, but NVC didn't receive it yet.

I read that there might be a government shutdown, if this happened, would it affect our immigration processing?

[Georgia16 2,858]

My husband that works for the government says that yes it will effect immigration also.

[geowrian 22,337]

I believe so. While USCIS is entirely self-funded, the buildings are still federal buildings so I believe they are not permitted to operate during a shutdown (barring an exemption).

[__immigrant__ 58]

if a shutdown happens how long would it be? would it be like a month?

[geowrian 22,337]

5 minutes ago, abe.wichner said:

if a shutdown happens how long would it be? would it be like a month?

However long it takes for them to work it out. Could be hours or a couple days (usually this), or it could be weeks or months.

Edited April 24, 2017 by geowrian

[Georgia16 2,858]

2 minutes ago, abe.wichner said:

if a shutdown happens how long would it be? would it be like a month?

No one can say how long.

 

1 week, 2 months who knows

 

But it will effect SO many people that it will be a chaos if it's for a longer time.

Edited April 24, 2017 by Georgia16

[Georgia16 2,858]

Here you can see that last times 

 

Why does it feel like we're under constant threat of a shutdown?

Maybe because we are.

There have been government shutdowns since at least the Ford administration. Over last several administrations, however, shutdowns have become more common. President Bush sent government workers packing over the long Columbus Day weekend in 1990. There were two multi-day government shutdowns during the Clinton administration: a five-day shutdown in 1995 and three-week shutdown in 1996. And in 2013, a 16 day shutdown held government hostage during the Obama administration.

Threats of a shutdown are a nearly annual occurrence. We barely avoided a shutdown in 2014, again in 2015, and in 2016. 

Edited April 24, 2017 by Georgia16

[charmander 692]

I didn't have any pending petition during the last government shutdown (October 2013) but based on what I found on google, USCIS continued operations as usual during that time. This is due to the fact that USCIS is almost entirely a self-funded agency.

 

Found this posting from 2013, a VJer reported her husband had his naturalization interview during the shutdown period without any issue.

Obviously what happened in the past does not guarantee it would be the same during Trump-era. Wait and see, I guess.

[Ryan H 3,812]

Moved from IR-1/CR-1 Progress Reports to General Immigration-Related Discussion.

[JB209 60]

I didn't know that USCIS is self funded, very interesting. 

 

However to keep people not too worried. If a shutdown were to happen, it will start on October 1st 2017

[inloveVEN 46]

it is hard to predict, indirectly it is affected because even though You are  paying a fee so USCIS officer and employees should keep working,  there are other services related or connected like evrify or the operations of the buildings that could be likely stopped, so it could delay processing times.

Edited April 25, 2017 by inloveVEN

[Transborderwife 4,666]

I recall people saying that there was a slight delay last time 

[bdrew612 1,071]

During the 2013 shutdown, USCIS was in the midst of a massive backlog of I-130 petitions. USCIS and NVC resumed operations.

[mallafri76 1,012]

Yes, all non-essential federal employees will be affected. 

 

Hopefully they can work something out before that happens.

[sparkles_ 456]

It does. At the time of the last big one, my husband was changing non immigrant status to a visitor and it took 5mo to process his visa while he waited. They go down to bare bones