The coronavirus pandemic and restrictive legal immigration policies have resulted in massive immigrant visa processing backlogs. At Boundless we understand how frustrating the waiting process can be.
According to the best information available, here is the priority order for January 2022 for visa processing in countries that aren’t on COVID-19 lockdown or do not have serious restrictions in place:
- IR-3/IR-4 (international adoption cases)
- IR-2 (specifically the immigrant child of a U.S. citizen who will turn 21 in the near future)
- Special Immigrant Visas for Iraqi and Afghan nationals working for the U.S. government
- CR-1/IR-1 (or marriage-based green cards)
- IR-2 (specifically the immigrant child of a U.S. citizen who will not turn 21 in the near future)
- IR-5 (parent of a U.S. citizen)
- K-1 (fiancé of a U.S. citizen)
- All other family-based visas and SE1 (foreign employees of the U.S. government abroad)
- All other immigrant visa types including employment-based and diversity visas
- H-1B/L/TN/H-2 (nonimmigrant employment-based visas)
- F/M/J (nonimmigrant students)
- E-1/E-2 (treaty trader/investor)
- B-1/B-2 (those eligible for an interview waiver)
- B-1/B-2 (currently not processing first-time applicants at all even in countries without serious restrictions due to the backlog taking precedence)
For more information, Boundless is regularly updating the current status of visa services by country.