OPINION-COLUMN: Visa-Immigration- Devil in the visa details

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AS of last week, the US State Department’s Immigrant Visa Backlog report for February shows the number of immigrant visa applicants worldwide waiting for their visa interviews as 433,666.

This month, the National Visa Center (NVC) was able to schedule interview notices for 27,454 DQ (documentarily qualified) visa applicants at consular posts worldwide, including those with the US Embassy in Manila.

While the State Department publishes the total number of immigrant visas issued monthly, the latest report was issued for December 2021. Nothing else published this year.

On that holiday month, 506 visas were issued in the family-sponsored categories, 350 of which are for the immediate relatives of US citizens: 118 for spouses; 107 for minor children and 108 for parents.

Family-preference visas subject to the annual quota did not fare well: F1 (over-21 unmarried sons/daughters of US citizens) – 14; F2B (over 21 unmarried sons/daughters of lawful permanent residents) -17; F3 (married sons/daughters of US citizens – 20; F4 (adult siblings of US citizens) – 23.

Even the spouse and minor children of green card holders not subject to the annual quota only got 21 visas.

Seventeen visas were issued to children to be adopted in the US under the Hague Convention.

The employment-based categories performed better than the family-sponsored counterparts, led by the EB3 (skilled workers, professionals) with 1,398, followed by other workers (EW) with 15.

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Eight Filipinos with advanced degrees got their E2 visas.

Five green card holders who “overstayed” in the Philippines (for more than a year if without a reentry permit) or more than two years with the reentry document, were able to return to the US with SB1 visas.

Six children of certain employees or former employees of the US government abroad got their visas and were able to join their parents.

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How about those still with NVC, how long would they have to wait?

NVC announces timeframes in three different processing scenarios:

Current case file creation time. Once an immigrant visa petition is approved, the US Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) forwards the case to NVC. After evaluation, a case number is assigned. When the petition’s priority date is within the visa processing time (as announced in the monthly Visa Bulletin), a visa applicant is issued a case creation letter and an invoice ID number.

Current case creation time frame: As of Feb. 22, 2022, NVC is working on cases that were received from USCIS on Feb. 9, 2022.

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Current case review time: After the immigrant visa applicant paid all fees and submitted all required documents, NVC may then review the case.

The documents reviewed include: petitioner’s affidavit of support; supporting financial documents; evidence of relationship and domicile; applicant’s DS-260 (immigrant visa application form); and applicant’s civil documents — certificates of birth, marriage, death, adoption, annulment; NBI clearance.

Current case review time: As of Feb. 22, 2022, NVC is reviewing documents submitted by applicants on Nov. 18, 2021.

Current Public Inquiry Form response time.To check the status of an immigrant visa application, the applicant may submit an inquiry to NVC. Understandably, due to the huge immigrant visa backlog a corresponding backlog of inquiries piled up.

As of Feb. 22, 2022, NVC is responding to inquiries received on Jan. 7, 2022.

NVC updates this information weekly and recommends that an immigrant visa applicant check the processing time frames before submitting a subsequent inquiry only if his or her case is within the announced time frame above. NVC explains that duplicate inquiries will only slow their ability to respond in a timely manner.

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Processing times with USCIS

Before the case is sent to NVC, the USCIS evaluates an immigrant visa petition for completeness, validity and veracity.

Family-sponsored categories are usually assigned to the specific service center that has jurisdiction over the petitioner’s place of residence. The five service centers are California, Nebraska, Potomac, Texas and Vermont.

Each service center has a designated symbol or abbreviation: WAC for California; LIN for Nebraska; PSC for Potomac; SRC for Texas and EAC for Vermont. Petitions filed online are issued receipts starting with the “IOE” letters, but actual processing remains a service center function.

Regardless of the preference category, the petition for an alien relative by a qualified US citizen or lawful permanent resident is filed with form I-130.

As of Friday, February 25, the service center provides the date when an I-130 form has been received at the center. The receipt date is the priority date. All the service centers do not provide processing times for the F4 category (adult brothers/sisters of US citizens).

To estimate how long you may have to wait (if your petition has not yet been approved, check your receipt number’s priority or filing date).

Next, check the most current or latest Visa Bulletin (March 2022) to check how long before you may start processing your case (again by using your priority date as reference) or when you could expect an interview.

Remember that even if you are DQ, you still have to complete your documentation — and the date when you have completed submitting them to NVC.

Finally, you are now waiting for that interview notice. Which would come about only if the US Embassy resumes normal visa operations.

Last week, the embassy’s announcement still explained that the consular post was operating with reduced staffing due to the Covid-19 pandemic. As a result, “routine visa services remain limited.”

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Immigrant visa processing

“The Embassy is processing immigrant visas across all categories… with significant backlogs in most categories.” Therefore, delay in interview schedules is the norm except for immediate relatives (IR-1 through IR-5).

“As of Jan. 31, 2022, most IR visa cases being scheduled for interview were documentarily complete at the National Visa Center in February 2021. Most K visa cases being scheduled were documentarily complete in October 2021. Most current employment-based cases being scheduled were documentarily complete in July 2020.

Most current family preference cases were documentarily complete in October 2019.”

The embassy cautions that it “is not possible to provide precise wait times as facilities, staffing resources and local conditions all affect capacity and scheduling.”

Remember that 666 number?

Hope that you would no longer be part of the 433,666 DQ applicants waiting in visa processing purgatory.