US Freeze on Visa Processing for 75 Countries

[Miller Family 341]

22 minutes ago, milimelo said:

With all this, I don't think immigrant visa applicants should be doing medical exams as they'll for sure be wasting their money.  Perhaps those that have to do TB long term testing would find it beneficial, but any other would just pay the $$ then get 221g in the meantime medical exam expires and then once this is sorted out/lifted they have to re-do (and pay again) for medical exam. 

Very good point.  Thank you for that. 

[Rasko 4]

On 1/14/2026 at 7:54 PM, milimelo said:

Well K-1s were exempt from COVID shots but immigrant ones were not so perhaps K-1 will be exempt with this as well? But then they could hold them up at AOS... 

So my fiance and I could then try K1 path but would fail during Adjustment of status, correct?

 

Also I'm surprised Bosnia amongst other Balkan countries is included, is it really bad over there with my countrymen being public charge or is this something else?

 

And lastly are there any predictions of this ending/being lifted because I assume as much as this hit us in Bosnia it would also impact people from 74 other countries...

[Miller Family 341]

On 1/15/2026 at 8:48 AM, Miller Family said:

For me, I paid my NVC fees on Monday and I'm waiting to get payment confirmation.  I think I'm still going to complete the I-864 and the D-260 as soon as possible and see if I'll get DQ, and then go from there.  I'll report back on any progress or rejections.

Currently I'm on day 3 of waiting for them to acknowledge the fee payment. 
 

Not sure if it's related to the pause or not, but I haven't been able to get into CEAC IV all day to see if my fee payment has been acknowledged. 

[milimelo 4,972]

4 hours ago, Rasko said:

So my fiance and I could then try K1 path but would fail during Adjustment of status, correct?

 

Also I'm surprised Bosnia amongst other Balkan countries is included, is it really bad over there with my countrymen being public charge or is this something else?

 

And lastly are there any predictions of this ending/being lifted because I assume as much as this hit us in Bosnia it would also impact people from 74 other countries...

Actually, based on the info posted I don't think anyone would get past 221g until this is sorted out. I expect lawsuits to start including class action ones. 

 

For Bosnia don't know what's the background but could be IR5s as most advanced age adults don't speak English, have no or minimal prospects of work (satisfying 40 quarters of work), Medicare issue and potential use of medicaid. Not sure about other potential welfare use. Younger folks normally don't come near welfare upon move to the US - I certainly never have since stepping foot in the US as an immigrant. 

 

Just guessing here as I've been long done with USCIS - what could work in your favor:  your fiance has current job that they could transfer skills to in the US market, speaks good English, you have medical insurance you can add to, I imagine that would be fine. 

[P3ACHY 49]

"The Department of State is undergoing a full review of all policies, regulations, and guidance to ensure that immigrants from these high-risk countries do not utilize welfare in the United States or become a public charge."

I'm confused a bit by the reasoning for this ban. Don't we (as the US citizen family members) accept total financial responsibility for our immigrant family members and agree to reimburse the government in the case they take financial assistance?....

 

Just a silly excuse to ban immigration and make it look logical to people who don't understand the process.
 

So grateful we got in before this happened. My heart goes out to anyone effected by this.

[Rasko 4]

1 hour ago, milimelo said:

Actually, based on the info posted I don't think anyone would get past 221g until this is sorted out. I expect lawsuits to start including class action ones. 

 

For Bosnia don't know what's the background but could be IR5s as most advanced age adults don't speak English, have no or minimal prospects of work (satisfying 40 quarters of work), Medicare issue and potential use of medicaid. Not sure about other potential welfare use. Younger folks normally don't come near welfare upon move to the US - I certainly never have since stepping foot in the US as an immigrant. 

 

Just guessing here as I've been long done with USCIS - what could work in your favor:  your fiance has current job that they could transfer skills to in the US market, speaks good English, you have medical insurance you can add to, I imagine that would be fine. 

Gotcha, so either way I'd get booted until Bosnia gets off the list... It's kind of sad that my country is on the list, but I'm sure they got their reasons.

We are both almost native like speakers (she is true native speaker) and I'm probably close to sounding like one, we're both willing to work and have skills we could possibly transfer over, but from what I figured none of that matters until ban gets lifted. So fingers crossed this doesn't go into the next administration.

[mam521 2,844]

1 hour ago, P3ACHY said:

I'm confused a bit by the reasoning for this ban. Don't we (as the US citizen family members) accept total financial responsibility for our immigrant family members and agree to reimburse the government in the case they take financial assistance?....

Exactly.  If anything, you'd think there would be I-864 reform and a review of the Federal Poverty Guidelines.  As much as certain someone wants to believe he's lowered grocery prices (the basis for the HHS poverty guideline is food prices for those that aren't aware), he hasn't and I can't believe for one minute that barely meeting these minimum income guidelines doesn't put a family welcoming a new immigrant in a whole world of potential hurt.  

[milimelo 4,972]

12 minutes ago, mam521 said:

Exactly.  If anything, you'd think there would be I-864 reform and a review of the Federal Poverty Guidelines.  As much as certain someone wants to believe he's lowered grocery prices (the basis for the HHS poverty guideline is food prices for those that aren't aware), he hasn't and I can't believe for one minute that barely meeting these minimum income guidelines doesn't put a family welcoming a new immigrant in a whole world of potential hurt.  

In my opinion, those guidelines were artificially low for at least 15+ years. As a new immigrant I had a job in under 4 months at $37k when prices were much much lower. (apparently that would be $55k in today's dollars given inflation).  I can't imagine bringing in anyone at $26k for two people - that's starvation for both.  They should at least base them off Alaska - minimum is $33k for two people. 

The other thing is that I-864 just weren't enforced by anyone except some lawyers for divorce alimony/child support purposes. No one was going after sponsors if the new immigrant went on welfare, medicaid, or similar. 

[Ban Hammer 14,899]

2 hours ago, milimelo said:

 

The other thing is that I-864 just weren't enforced by anyone except some lawyers for divorce alimony/child support purposes. No one was going after sponsors if the new immigrant went on welfare, medicaid, or similar. 

this right here is what i bet this is about.
the few cases i've seen where the i-864 came up has been in divorce court as stated above, and often seemed to be a tool for the immigrant spouse to ask for higher alimony payments.

Edited Friday at 08:51 PM by Ban Hammer

[Aret 0]

Hello. I'm a US Citizen living in Nigeria with my spouse and three children. I've already initiated the process of filing for i-130s for my family. My spouse's i-130 has already been approved and he's awaiting for an interview with the NVC while our children's petitions are still in progress. How does this affect our immigration process with the recent developments.

Edited 11 hours ago by Aret
I needed to add more context.

[Crazy Cat 46,097]

***A similar topic question merged***

[yuna628 9,959]

On 1/15/2026 at 12:31 PM, milimelo said:

With all this, I don't think immigrant visa applicants should be doing medical exams as they'll for sure be wasting their money.  Perhaps those that have to do TB long term testing would find it beneficial, but any other would just pay the $$ then get 221g in the meantime medical exam expires and then once this is sorted out/lifted they have to re-do (and pay again) for medical exam. 

They might be wasting their money but...

 

According to the memo everything is to proceed as normal, as in you are still supposed to have an interview. But that interview will basically be a sham anyway, as they will deny the applicant under the terms of the memo. I will assume if you show up without having completed the medical they would refer to the other portion of the memo which is to 'find another way to deny the applicant' first.

[appleblossom 5,690]

8 hours ago, Aret said:

Hello. I'm a US Citizen living in Nigeria with my spouse and three children. I've already initiated the process of filing for i-130s for my family. My spouse's i-130 has already been approved and he's awaiting for an interview with the NVC while our children's petitions are still in progress. How does this affect our immigration process with the recent developments.

 

None of them can get visas at the moment unless by any chance they have dual citizenship with another country that isn't on the ban list?

 

Presumably your husband was going to postpone his interview until the children's cases had caught up with his though, so they can all have their interviews together, and get visas at the same time? So they must be at least 18 months away from that point. Just keep an eye on the news and keep your fingers crossed the ban is lifted by then.

 

Good luck.