PHOENIX (AZFamily)<\/b> \u2014 The U.S. State Department\u2019s move to halt visa processing for people from 75 countries is raising new questions among immigrants, refugees and their attorneys.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe order is so vague,\u201d said Immigration Attorney Juliana Manzanarez.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere\u2019s a tons of concerns,\u201d added Immigration Attorney Darius Amiri.<\/p>\n
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. <\/p>\n
\u201cEspecially given some of the countries on this list and what\u2019s going on in those countries. I\u2019ll just give you one example, Iran. We have a client who\u2019s 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,\u201d said Amiri.<\/p>\n
The state department claimed this is an effort to weed out immigrants who would depend on public assistance, someone who would be considered a \u201cpublic charge.\u201d Manzanarez said this is already reviewed in the green card process. <\/p>\n
\u201cI think part of the confusion is that part of the process for the green card is to show that you won\u2019t become a public charge. So, there\u2019s already documentation in their application that the consular officer has to consider,\u201d said Manzanarez.<\/p>\n
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. <\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s 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,\u201d said Amiri.<\/p>\n
This order should not impact travel or work visas.<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
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