Visa Processing Delays

The American Immigration Lawyers Association(AILA) released a practice alert (AILA Doc. No. 17120635), noting that visa applicants are experiencing visa processing delays at consular posts around the world. The delays are caused by technical issues in the visa processing system. The AILA DOS Liaison Committee raised this issue with the Department of State Visa Office, and the Visa Office confirmed that the Bureau of Consular Affairs is in the process of resolving these technical problems with the visa processing systems. They noted that some progress has already been made, but processing has not been fully restored. Their experts continue to focus on this issue and are working to fully resolve it as quickly as possible.

It is important to note that, while this is a worldwide issue, the problem only delays visa issuances for about 15-20 percent of applicants who have been approved for visas. The majority of approved visas are being issued without technical errors. In addition, while the CEAC system will show these cases as being in "Administrative Processing," this simply means that the cases are pending and does not denote that any further review is required.