PHOENIX (AZFamily) — The U.S. State Department’s move to halt visa processing for people from 75 countries is raising new questions among immigrants, refugees and their attorneys.
“The order is so vague,” said Immigration Attorney Juliana Manzanarez.
“There’s a tons of concerns,” added Immigration Attorney Darius Amiri.
With the halt officially starting Jan. 21, Amiri said the main concern is what this could mean for clients currently going through the process, trying to escape dangerous home countries.
“Especially given some of the countries on this list and what’s going on in those countries. I’ll just give you one example, Iran. We have a client who’s filing for a green card for her mother and that case is scheduled for a couple of weeks from now and that will be implicated. So a big concern there,” said Amiri.
The state department claimed this is an effort to weed out immigrants who would depend on public assistance, someone who would be considered a “public charge.” Manzanarez said this is already reviewed in the green card process.
“I think part of the confusion is that part of the process for the green card is to show that you won’t become a public charge. So, there’s already documentation in their application that the consular officer has to consider,” said Manzanarez.
Both attorneys said the state department should have announced this months ago, so people already in the middle of the process could prepare and plan. As it stands now, these cases may end up on hold indefinitely.
“It’s not the end of the process, but I can certainly understand why someone will be frustrated with this, especially someone in a country where, you know, they want to come into America. This is going to now be just another roadblock of that journey,” said Amiri.
This order should not impact travel or work visas.
The list includes: Afghanistan, Albania, Algeria, Antigua and Barbuda, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Bahamas, Bangladesh, Barbados, Belarus, Belize, Bhutan, Bosnia, Brazil, Burma, Cambodia, Cameroon, Cape Verde, Colombia, Congo, Cuba, Dominica, Egypt, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Fiji, Gambia, Georgia, Ghana, Grenada, Guatemala, Guinea, Haiti, Iran, Iraq, Ivory Coast, Jamaica, Jordan, Kazakhstan, Kosovo, Kuwait, Kyrgyzstan, Laos, Lebanon, Liberia, Libya, Macedonia, Moldova, Mongolia, Montenegro, Morocco, Nepal, Nicaragua, Nigeria, Pakistan, Republic of the Congo, Russia, Rwanda, Saint Kitts and Nevis, Saint Lucia, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, Senegal, Sierra Leone, Somalia, South Sudan, Sudan, Syria, Tanzania, Thailand, Togo, Tunisia, Uganda, Uruguay, Uzbekistan and Yemen.
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