US Immigration from Singapore

We've had tons of questions on whether the Montreal US Consulate in Canada has been approving marriage based US Visas (and if so at what rate). To answer that, we dug into the official US State Department data and plotted visa approvals for K1, CR1 and IR1 visas over the last 2 years. Here is what we found:

• K1 Visa processing is down. In fact it's down by more than 2x from pre-Covid levels (~100 a month pre-Covid to ~40 month now). There is likely to be a significant backlog after the Consulate stopped processing K1s for 6 months.
• IR1 Visa processing is WAY up. In fact it's up by 4x pre-Covid levels. It appears the Consulate is trying to clear the IR1 backlog, at the expense of not processing K1s.
• CR1 Visa processing (couples married less than 2 years) is roughly 2x higher than pre-Covid (~50 a month pre-Covid to more than ~100 a month now). Could folks be preferring the CR-1 route over a K1 visa? Could this simply be similar to the IR1 surge to clear the backlog (again, at the expense of K1 Visas).

What do you think of the data (below)? Do you think the US consulate in Montreal is artificially slowing don K1 Visa processing to prioritize other work or for other reasons?

After a rough year of Covid, several busy US Consulates are struggling to restore processing of important family Visas (K1, C/IR1 and IR5s). VisaJourney did a deep dive into the numbers and the results are surprising (and frustrating).

Philippines (Manila) [K1 Visas Struggle, IR1 Visas Recovering]

https://www.visajourney.com/forums/topic/764181-philippines-us-marriage-visa-approvals-by-month-k1-visas-way-down-cr1-visas-up/

China (Guangzhou) [K1 Visas Down, IR1 Visas Way Up]

https://www.visajourney.com/forums/topic/764273-china-us-marriage-visa-approvals-by-month-k1-visas-way-down-cr1-visas-up/

United Kingdom (London) [K1 Visas Slow to Ramp Up, IR1 Visas Recovering]

We've had tons of questions on whether the London US Consulate in the United Kingdom has been approving marriage based US Visas (and if so at what rate). To answer that, we dug into the official US State Department data and plotted visa approvals for K1, CR1 and IR1 visas over the last 2 years. Here is what we found:

• K1 Visa processing is WAY down. In fact it's down by more than 3x from pre-Covid levels (~40 a month pre-Covid to ~120 a month now). There is likely to be a significant backlog after not approving cases for 9 months! Clearing the backlog could take 18 months at this rate.
• IR1 Visa processing is back to pre-Covid rates. Maybe slightly ahead. There is likely a backlog that will take several months to clear given the slow down last year.
• CR1 Visa processing (couples married less than 2 years) is mirroring IR1 Visa trends.

What do you think of the data (below)? Do you think the US consulate in London is artificially slowing don K1 Visa processing for other reasons? It certainly makes no sense that IR-1's can be back to (roughy) normal but not K1s. Both are family based... Perhaps resources are being applied elsewhere despite US policy to prioritize reunification of families. VisaJourney supports shining a bright light on this. How can we help?

We've had tons of questions on whether the Ho Chi Min City US Consulate in Vietnam has been approving family based US Visas (and if so at what rate). To answer that, we dug into the official US State Department data and plotted visa approvals for K1, CR1, IR1 and IR5 visas over the last 2 years. Here is what we found:

• K1 Visa processing is recovering. It's still below average after a 3 month pause in processing last summer, indicating a backlog.
• IR1 Visa and CR1 Visa processing times are back to pre-Covid rates. There was a processing surge that seems to have made a dent in the backlog due to the 3 month pause last summer.
• IR5 Visa processing had a HUGE surge in April showing an all hands on deck effort to process the backlog after 11 months of being stopped. This is very promising!

The full data is below. What are your thoughts?

We've had questions on whether the Mumbai US Consulate in India has been approving marriage based US Visas (and if so at what rate). To answer that, we dug into the official US State Department data and plotted visa approvals for K1, CR1 and IR1 visas over the last 2 years. Here is what we found:

• K1 Visa stopped for 9 months. It started again in January but there doesn't appear to be any effort to clear the backlog.
• IR1 Visa and CR1 Visa processing stopped for 5 months but started again last September. There was a huge push to clear the backlog (seen by the processing spike below)

What are your thoughts? It looks like K1s are not getting any priority which means longer wait times from petition receipts to interviews -- keeping family apart.