The Trump administration has directed U.S. embassies and consulates worldwide to temporarily pause and reschedule immigrant visa interviews while consular officers undergo mandatory training on enhanced screening procedures, including the public charge ground of inadmissibility.
Continue Reading State Department Pauses Immigrant Visa Interviews Worldwide as Consular Officers Undergo New Public Charge Training

The U.S. State Department has announced a temporary halt on immigrant visa processing for applicants from 75 countries, effective Jan. 21, 2026. This pause comes as the department reassesses its vetting procedures under existing immigration law, specifically focusing on the public charge rule — a determination of whether an applicant is likely to require long-term…

The U.S. State Department and U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services announced that they have issued all legally available visas in the unreserved EB-5 Immigrant Investor Program categories for Fiscal Year 2024. Embassies and consulates have been directed to not issue immigrant visas in these categories until the new fiscal year (FY 2025) starts on Oct.

Immigration professionals and clients have been reporting technical issues and error messages they received when attempting to access cases at the National Visa Center (NVC) through the Consular Electronic Application Center (CEAC) system. 

The NVC is part of the U.S. Department of State’s Bureau of Consular Affairs and serves a clerical function in processing immigrant…

Greenberg Traurig, LLP’s Immigration and Compliance Practice Global Co-Chair Kate Kalmykov and Shareholder Jennifer Hermansky received recognition in EB5 Investors Magazine’s “Top 25 Attorneys” issue. The publication highlights the industry’s leading legal professionals working in support of the Employment-Based Immigrant Investor Visa Program (EB-5), which provides foreign nationals U.S. visas, contingent upon designated…

The global demand for non-immigrant U.S. visas skyrocketed during the COVID-19 health emergency, when travel was halted and U.S. embassies and consulates closed. Even after reopening, U.S. embassies and consulates are still reporting significant delays in many locations including Brazil, India, Mexico, and others. More recently, the U.S. State Department announced that new processing initiatives, including…

U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) has issued updated guidance in its Policy Manual, which makes a key change in the interpretation of when an immigrant visa number “becomes available” for the purpose of calculating a child’s age under the Child Status Protection Act (CSPA). Under this new guidance, starting Feb. 14, 2023, USCIS will…