Resuming K visa interviews at Travel-Banned countries

The major news this week is that the US Department of State has announced they will consider immigrant visas (fiance visas, included) as an exception to the Presidential Proclamations 9984, 9992, and 10143 (i.e. “Travel Ban”) on select countries. Meaning, they will resume fiance visa interviews in Travel Banned countries. We’ll talk about this below, but first, let’s cover the basics:

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The USCIS
If you remember, the lockbox facility was processing paperwork at a painfully slow speed in prior months. They are well underway resuming “normalcy” and averaging about 4 weeks before they accept your I-129F and send you a notification.

The I-129F processing remains steady at 5-7 months of processing for cases filed recently.

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The NVC
The NVC, a subcontractor to the Department of State (Embassies), is the same as before. They hold petitions until the consulates are ready to resume. Your case will be “stuck” with them until the destination Embassy is ready to accept new applications.

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US Embassies
As you know, non-travel banned countries were resuming operations, although slowly, starting about 2 months ago. K visa applicants from Travel-Banned countries such as the UK, Ireland, China, countries in the Schengen area, Brazil and more were not allowed to interview or enter the US directly.

Due to pressure from all sides, on April 8th, 2021, the US Department of State has made a big change. See the full news release here:

https://travel.state.gov/content/travel/en/News/visas-news/updates-to-national-interest-exceptions-for-regional-covid-proclamations.html 

Technically the Presidential Proclamations are still in effect. However, many immigrant visas, including Fiance K visas, now qualify for a “National Interest Exception”.

As per the official statement:

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“On April 8, 2021, the Secretary of State determined that travel on an immigrant or fiancé(e) visa is in the national interest for purposes of granting exceptions under the geographic COVID proclamations. Immigrant Visa processing posts may now grant immigrant and fiancé(e) visas to applicants otherwise eligible, notwithstanding these proclamations.”

-US Dep’t of State

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In terms of when this will happen and how quickly, it’s not officially stated.

“We are unable to provide a specific date for when each mission will resume specific visa services. Applicants should monitor embassy and consulate websites for updates on availability of visa services.”

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Each embassy is given flexibility in how quickly they can implement the new exception. 

So, if you’re in a Travel-banned country, please share (below) when you are contacted by the Embassy in regards to your K visa interview (hit “reply” to this email). Or if you see an update on their website, share that, too. I’d like to track how quickly things resume for couples around the world so I can share with couples around the world.

Notice that the press release says “that travel on an immigrant or fiancé(e) visa is in the national interest for purposes of granting exceptions under the geographic COVID proclamations.”

This also sounds like they’re saying that K visa holders can not only apply for a visa but also enter the US (port of entry) without having to quarantine — but this is still unclear and I will look into this further. If you find the answer before I do, please share.