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INS Temporarily Freezes Processing of Immigrant Visa Petitions and Applications October 4, 2001 The Immigration and Naturalization Service has temporarily frozen potentially hundreds of thousands of applications and visa petitions from immigrants living in the United States while it conducts a national audit of applicants, and assigns a bar code to every one. INS officials said they plan to lift the temporary immigration hold by October 9, but only if their count is complete by then. The freeze could affect persons applying for residency by delaying the approval of immigrant visa petitions, applications for permanent residence, citizenship, or visa extensions. It does not affect immigrants entering the country for the first time. They are issued temporary visas by the State Department through US consulates abroad. Meanwhile, up to 80,000 refugees worldwide are blocked from entering the United States until President George W. Bush decides how many to accept, and from which countries, following the terrorist attacks of September 11. As more information becomes available, it will be posted to our web site. |
