U.S. Stops Reopening Consulates: 60% Still Partially Closed

David J. BierThis is an update ona  post from August 2021.The State Department remains a  major barrier to reopening the United States to legal travel and immigration. As of mid‐​October, 60 percent of consulates remained fully or partially closed to anything other than emergency nonimmigrant visa appointments, and 40 percent are completely closed to non ‐​emergency nonimmigrant visa appointments, according to the State Department’s website. Nonimmigrant visas are used by temporary foreign workers, students, business travelers, tourists, and others.Worse still, the State Department has essentially stopped making any progress toward fully reopening nonimmigrant (i.e. temporary) visa processing with only 2  percent of consulates entering fully open status since August, and no decrease at all in the share (40 percent) that are fully closed to nonemergency nonimmigrant appointments. The fully open consulates (40 percent) are reporting wait times of, in many cases, six months or longer for some nonimmig rant visas.Consular officershave all received the opportunity to obtain COVID-19 vaccinessince May.More than 6.6 billion COVID-19 vaccines have been administered worldwide altogether this year. Moreover, all travelers to the United States mustreceive negative COVID-19 tests. Nonetheless, the State Department is keeping the doors closed to appointments, and it has refused to waive interviews in most cases or usevirtual interviews. In fact, a  State Department represen...
Source: Cato-at-liberty - Category: American Health Authors: Source Type: blogs