June 5, 2003

U.S. Embassy urges immigrant visa applicants to come prepared

Starting July of this year, the U.S. State Department will have less immigrant visa numbers to issue for family-based petitions and is therefore urging immigrant visa applicants to be conscientious about gathering all the required documents in time and showing up for their appointments.

The Embassy in Manila has been advised by the Department of State that the visa allocations worldwide will be limited for the remainder of the fiscal year ending September 2003. This means that visa petitions that could have been current for processing may have to wait a little longer until visa numbers become available again.

Applicants who already have interview appointments and those who have been interviewed but still lack documents are encouraged to come prepared, otherwise, they may have to wait until visa numbers are available again after September 30, according to Consul General David T. Donahue.

The Embassy has added two extra interview days in June to accommodate immigrant visa applications that are within the cutoff date for processing as indicated by a visa petition’s priority date. By July, these cutoff priority dates will be retrogressed or moved back.

Scheduled applicants are sent a visa packet which lists all the application requirements and procedures. Applicants and/or their petitioners may also contact the Immigrant Visa Call Center at 1-909-101-0011 (PLDT) to inquire about the required documents and procedures.

Other high-volume, visa-issuing posts were also advised about the retrogression of visa numbers in their countries. The Philippines is the State Department’s second largest immigrant visa processing post, receiving more than 50,000 applications a year.

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