Travel Ban

[salhasl 113]

Now that the Supreme court has, as expected, ruled that the Travel ban is legal, I am trying to figure out what avenues are left for those stuck in this mess.

 

I am aware of at least 1 court case that might bring some relief, 

https://www.pacermonitor.com/public/case/23929206/Emami_v_Nielsen_et_al

 

I have access to pacer and have read through all the documents of this case. Basically the plantiffs are arguing that the defendants are not adhering to the waiver provisions. The parties have agreed to a case management conference date of July 25th. Hopefully we will hear something.

 

There is another case here : https://www.pacermonitor.com/public/case/24314855/Alharbi_et_al_v_Miller_et_al

For some reason, my pacer account does not have access to read the documents of this one, but from the synopsis the court has asked to release the visas by July 9th 

 

Are there any other court cases that folks here have knowledge about? 

[salhasl 113]

Also I must add, I haven now spoken to multiple people who have said their IR1 cases went from refused to Administrative Processing, so that seems to be another good sign. 

 

[Ryan H 3,818]

Moved from IR-1/CR-1 Progress Reports to Immigration News and Discussion.

[salhasl 113]

An update from today, a new court case has been filed to get visibility around the waiver system, so that should also give us some more hope:

 

https://ccrjustice.org/home/press-center/press-releases/attorneys-sue-info-hundreds-muslim-ban-waiver-denials?utm_source=twitter&utm_medium=twitter_June28&utm_campaign=No+Muslim+Ban&utm_content=press+release#.WzUYN0FQfO8.twitter

 

 

[Mirna.A 18]

My husband's case is on AP. Thanks for all the info. Please keep us updated!

[salhasl 113]

51 minutes ago, Mirna.A said:

My husband's case is on AP. Thanks for all the info. Please keep us updated!

Ok another update. The American civil liberties union is collecting information on all pending waivers. If you or anyone you know has applied for a visa after dec 8th you are most likely awaiting waiver consideration.

 

Please submit your information here

 

https://action.aclu.org/legal-intake/get-legal-help-aclu-washington?ms_aff=NAT&initms_aff=NAT&ms=180628_WVX_&initms=180628_WVX_&ms_chan=web&initms_chan=web

[salhasl 113]

Everyone, please be aware that our most prominent chance of getting justice is an organization like ACLU filing a Class Action to make the government adhere to their own proclamation's wording. So please contact them:

 

Have you or a family member applied for a waiver from the Muslim Travel Ban to get a visa to the U.S.? If so, the ACLU-WA wants to hear from you! Please contact us using this form: https://action.aclu.org/legal-intake/get-legal-help-aclu-washington?ms_aff=NAT&initms_aff=NAT&ms=180628_WVX_&initms=180628_WVX_&ms_chan=web&initms_chan=web …

 

[salhasl 113]

The iaba is also collecting information

 

https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLScMBh70U45fAavm6ssf47lw-hH6F260tn5iBwg27T7jjzIlPw/viewform

 

 

So is aila 

https://www.aila.org/advo-media/agency-liaison/case-examples/call-for-examples-experiences-with-waivers

 

Please submit your information. These organizations have the resources to advocate on our behalf. 

 

[salhasl 113]

https://www.nelsonmullins.com/idea_exchange/alerts/additional_nelson_mullins_alerts/all/trump-v-hawaii-and-what-s-next

 

This is an interesting article by a former visa officer. 

[salhasl 113]

I have not updated this thread in a while now, but there are some good signs.

 

1) I have personally now seen 2 B1/B2, 2 K1, and 2 IR1 visas stamped from banned countries.

2) There have been a total of 1000 waivers approved : https://travel.state.gov/content/travel/en/us-visas/visa-information-resources/presidential-proclamation-archive/june_26_supreme_court_decision_on_presidential_proclamation9645.html. At current rate, they are approving about 200 waivers a month.

3) For those of you who got approved prior to the ban but didnt get the visas' printed, there was a court case that is requiring the DOS to issue these visas. There have been dozens of mostly Yemeni folks who got their visas this way.

 

 

 

[Samer78 9]

Hi Salhasl,

 

Thanks for the update,  but where do you get this statistic from ?

[salhasl 113]

21 hours ago, Samer78 said:

Hi Salhasl,

 

Thanks for the update,  but where do you get this statistic from ?

This is all publicly available information. If you are referring to the visa counts, its all available here:

https://travel.state.gov/content/travel/en/legal/visa-law0/visa-statistics.html

[salhasl 113]

So I have been doing further number crunching. I am looking at numbers from last may and comparing it to this may:

 

May 2017 Non Immigrant:

 

May 2018 Non immigrant

 

May 2017 Immigrant:

 

May 2018 Immigrant:

 

What i have highlighted in green are visa categories that I believe would qualify for waivers (Spouses, Children of USC/LPR/NIV). I know they are flat out denying waivers to parents/siblings/lottery winners.

 

So for IV visas - around 500 immediate family IV's were issued in May 2017 when the ban was on hold. In May 2018, this number drops to approx 50. Which I believe were exceptions to the proclamation. So about 450 might have qualified for the waiver review. 

 

For the NIV category, things are rather interesting. The only category that really matters there numerically is the B1/B2. We know they are giving out B1/B2 waivers. But we have no idea what the backlog is. No idea how many are pending waiver review. Worse yet, no idea if B1/B2 are reviewed along side IV visas. It certainly looks like it, because I have seen B1 visas printed with waiver annotation. How many B visas are in waiver reivew? God knows.

 

But even if 500 IV visas are coming in for waiver review per month (a number that seems reasonable on basis of last year's immediate family numbers) and the DOS is processing 200 waivers a month, we are looking at a backlog that grows at atleast 300/month. 

 

Unless the speed of waivers picks up, or people stop applying altogether, looks like we are looking at a loooongg wait :-(

 

Anyone see problems with my math here? 

 

Lots of assumptions - May 2017 v 2018 could be completely different, waivers might be coming for other visas (I saw some weird ones like P1 and such), Some could be dual nationals, some May visas could be waiver based, lots of room for error, but this is the best I have so far. Open to input. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited July 21, 2018 by salhasl

[Mirna.A 18]

Thanks for all the info SalHasl! How long do you think people will wait post interview for their visas? 

A friend of a friend of mine in the embassy said that after the interview it may take over a year

The CR1 case that you mentioned got a visa after 22 months, is that after his/her interview?

[salhasl 113]

4 minutes ago, Mirna.A said:

Thanks for all the info SalHasl! How long do you think people will wait post interview for their visas? 

A friend of a friend of mine in the embassy said that after the interview it may take over a year

The CR1 case that you mentioned got a visa after 22 months, is that after his/her interview?

That was a k1. His ap was 22 months. But i have also seen k1s being issued in 3 months after interview. Ap for men especially if you have a common name or a military service or education in things that have military use is a lot longer.