Biden Administration Faces Backlog of 380,000 Waiting to Immigrate (merged)

[SusieQQQ 11,586]

NYT article on the effects of the Trump ban on most new green cards. “The suspension of most legal immigration, combined with the pandemic, has left visa applicants in limbo. Even if President Biden ends the bans, it could take years to process everyone.”

 

 

Some points for those of you who don’t like clicking through /may hit a paywall 

 

- A State Department official said in federal court last month that, as of Dec. 31, more than 380,000 immigrant visa applicants were awaiting a consular interview. Immigration experts said it would take up to a year under normal circumstances to work through that many applications.

- Last month, a State Department official told a federal court that many consulates were “extremely short-staffed” and struggling to schedule the in-person interviews that U.S. visa regulations require of all adult applicants. During the pandemic, consulates have been directed to process visas for the small subset of immigrants who were not banned — mainly the spouses and children of U.S. citizens — but they have worked on only a small fraction of those visas, issuing them at about a third the rate as before the pandemic

-  Even [if the ban is removed], former consular officers warn, staff shortages, a budget shortfall and hiring limitations mean the backlog could take years to eliminate.

- When fully staffed, many consulates have one or two officers who adjudicate immigrant visas, generally enough to lag just a little behind demand, but nowhere near what will be needed to cut into the backlog while also keeping up with new applications. 
- the article also discuss both a staff and budget crisis, and points out even if both these start getting addressed immediately, it can take up to two years to fully onboard (training/exams/security clearance) someone new in a foreign service position 

- Immigration experts and former consular officers said they expected the current backlog to add at least a year to the process for new applicants. 

https://www.nytimes.com/2021/02/03/us/immigrant-visas-consulates-backlog.html

 

Edited February 3, 2021 by SusieQQQ

[millefleur 5,046]

At the Moscow Embassy, there's a problem getting diplomatic visas for staff so they can return and do their jobs. I wonder if other embassies/consulate staff are having similar issues.

Edited February 3, 2021 by millefleur

[Lights 56]

Thanks for sharing this.  We've been waiting for my parents.  We filed April/May 2019 and are at NVC stage awaiting interviews (we were pretty much there, petition approved with DQ, until the ban).  In Canada, they closed their Vancouver branch (or restricted interviews) since 2016-ish.  I had my interview in Vancouver (in 2014), while I know many people after me on a K1 were forced to go to Montreal.  I was hoping they'd re-open their Vancouver embassy for the backlog and because you can do medical in Vancouver still... but this makes me feel like we've got a lot longer to go.  What a disaster... 

 

I feel for many of my colleagues who moved to the US to be in the medical field, feeling like it would only be temporary until we could bring our parents over.  Many are fighting the front-lines and worried about their elderly parents (mine included) and we're prepared to pay out of pocket for our insurance etc.  I suppose we could go home.  Our industry is full of immigrants and I can see so many clinics and hospitals would not survive if they didn't take immigrant employees anymore... I suppose we could go home but how do we leave during a pandemic when people need us but we need our families to keep going... 

 

 I know we're all on this journey... so i hope the days and weeks ahead are kind to you all. 

 

 

[TBoneTX 45,288]

It also might be that the south-of-border caravans will be given some priority.  Asylum petitions are purely with USCIS, skipping the consular phase; regardless, AOS/ROC/naturalization timelines may be affected.  Time will tell.

[Chauncey 138]

https://www.nytimes.com/2021/02/03/us/immigrant-visas-consulates-backlog.html

[millefleur 5,046]

**Threads on the same topic merged**

 

VJ Moderation

[Boiler 45,497]

In the scheme of things 380,000 is a drop in the bucket.

 

I wonder if USCIS and DoS draw from the same pool of recruits, I can well imagine some of those overseas postings are not looking that attractive.

[millefleur 5,046]

21 minutes ago, Boiler said:

In the scheme of things 380,000 is a drop in the bucket.

 

I wonder if USCIS and DoS draw from the same pool of recruits, I can well imagine some of those overseas postings are not looking that attractive.

I agree. According to this reddit post by an alleged USCIS worker, the biometrics backlog for N-400 alone was approx. 578,000 about 2 months ago, and over 1.3 million appointments pending altogether. 380k doesn't seem too bad in comparison!

 

 

Edited February 4, 2021 by millefleur

[SusieQQQ 11,586]

2 hours ago, millefleur said:

I agree. According to this reddit post by an alleged USCIS worker, the biometrics backlog for N-400 alone was approx. 578,000 about 2 months ago, and over 1.3 million appointments pending altogether. 380k doesn't seem too bad in comparison!

 

 

My impression from VJ and some Facebook groups is that uscis really focused on getting the n400 applications through the pipeline once they reopened though. We saw those stories of them phoning people to see if they could come in to interview like a day or two later and so many FOs started same day oaths that had never done them. And I get what this dude is saying about bio, but they have addressed at least some of that by seemingly  reusing bios wherever possible. At the other end they seem to have pushed things like re-entry permits right to the back of the priority queue.  But I was really pleased at how they focused on the n400s. 

 

2 hours ago, Boiler said:

P

 

I wonder if USCIS and DoS draw from the same pool of recruits, I can well imagine some of those overseas postings are not looking that attractive.

Although it seems to us that the jobs are fairly similar, my understanding is that they are actually quite different, with DoS being aimed at the foreign service/diplomatic missions and consular officials being only a small part of that. I don’t think you join DoS saying “I want to examine visa applications”. You join DoS, do the training and exams, and then get allocated a post and job which may or may not involve similar work to what uscis does.  And COs have other career prospects within DoS, at consulates or other country postings, Washington head office jobs, etc. if you work in Dallas FO well you may become a supervisor or manager one day but it’s really an entirely different type of career and career path that will likely stay in Dallas FO forever.

Edited February 4, 2021 by SusieQQQ