The green card backlog at the National Visa Center (NVC) increased in June, with 426,486 interviews waiting to be scheduled in June compared to 421,126 in May, an increase in the backlog of 5,350 cases. According to the NVC, the average number of cases waiting for an interview to be scheduled in calendar year 2019 was 60,866. This means that the NVC backlog is currently running at more than 7 times the monthly average for 2019.
The total number of scheduled green card interviews increased negligibly from May to June, from 28,447 in May to 28,545 — an increase of less than half a percentage point. Over the past 12 months, the NVC has fluctuated between a “high” of 34,408 cases scheduled for interview in July 2021, to a low of 24,158 in December 2021.
With no apparent changes in their approach to processing applications or increase in scheduling interviews, it appears that the green card backlog will remain a challenge for immigrants and their families indefinitely.
The National Visa Center (NVC) — a State Department facility that processes visa applications — publishes a monthly report to update the public on changes to the immigrant visa backlog. Wait times have exploded since March 2020, when the coronavirus pandemic led to a shutdown of U.S. embassies and consulates around the world. The pandemic continues to place strain on the number of visas the State Department is able to process.