Effect of Immigrant Visa Pause on Already-Issued I551 Visas

[J-San 6]

If a petitioner from the affected countries has already received the I551 immigrant visa stamp in their passport, can they still enter the US for the first time in February or are they affected by this pause?

It sounds like the pause is only on issuing new visas, but I'm wondering if anyone has read anything about how it affects travel after consular approval?

 

[appleblossom 5,870]

12 minutes ago, J-San said:

If a petitioner from the affected countries has already received the I551 immigrant visa stamp in their passport, can they still enter the US for the first time in February or are they affected by this pause?

It sounds like the pause is only on issuing new visas, but I'm wondering if anyone has read anything about how it affects travel after consular approval?

 

 

I think theoretically it's only for people who haven't received visas already, but personally I wouldn't risk it. I'd be getting on a plane before the ban is implemented. 

[speedster 102]

As per State Dept: Does this affect my current valid visa?
No immigrant visas have been revoked as part of this guidance.  For questions regarding admission to the United States, we refer you to DHS.

IMO, They need to get here ASAP, there's no telling what DHS or State will do next

[J-San 6]

Thank you for the responses and advice.  

I want to provide an update in case others are in the same situation.

We were not able to go with the safest option of entering the US before that pause went into effect, so we decided to give it a month and see if we should travel or forget about it.  After following some similar cases online, we decided to travel and we entered the US last week.  

Port of entry: IAD

Questions asked: "You're here to immigrate?", "Do you have any items to declare?", and "Can you confirm your address in the US?"

Then the officer stamped the page across from the visa sticker and wrote "IR5" under it.

 

Regarding IAD:

Con: Very long line.  We were lucky and were about 10th in line from our flight, but there was another flight ahead of us that was finishing up.  It took us about 45 minutes, but I could see the rest of our plane would have likely taken 3 hours to finish up.  Depending on airline, they use those weird elevated busses to move people between the arrival terminal and immigration, so the first off the plane isn't necessarily the first in line.  

Pro: The officer processed us at the window and didn't send us to a room for secondary screening.  He verified the address and stamped the passport in about 2 minutes.  Not sure if this is normal at IAD or if we just got an officer who was able to take care of it all there.

 

Best of luck to the rest of the VJ community and hopefully the pauses and bans go away soon.

[appleblossom 5,870]

1 hour ago, J-San said:

The officer processed us at the window and didn't send us to a room for secondary screening.  He verified the address and stamped the passport in about 2 minutes.  Not sure if this is normal at IAD or if we just got an officer who was able to take care of it all there.

 

Never heard of anybody needing to go to secondary at any airport, it's all usually done pretty quickly at the first window. 

 

Congrats, glad it all went smoothly.

[TBoneTX 49,374]

11 hours ago, J-San said:

I want to provide an update in case others are in the same situation.

Very illuminating.  Others can take heart from this.  Thanks for taking the time to document it so thoroughly.