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The United States has temporarily paused appointments to request immigrant visas worldwide, due to the need to train its consular staff on new procedures, a State Department spokesperson reported this Wednesday.
"While we work to accommodate this thorough training, visa service appointments will be adjusted," a State Department spokesperson told EFE, who did not clarify when those services would resume.
"When there are changes to visa interview appointments, embassies and consulates communicate any change directly to applicants," the spokesperson indicated, which coincides with the messages that visa applicants around the world have begun to receive regarding the suspension of already scheduled appointments.
The training is related to new procedures to ensure that the recipients of those visas do not pose a burden on public coffers and "do not become dependent on public benefits in the United States that are needed by Americans who qualify for them."
According to the State Department, this new training for consular officials and employees began in early August on a "global" level, so these temporary cancellations apply equally throughout the network of United States consulates.
According to another source cited by the Washington Post, appointments to obtain immigrant visas have been canceled from Monday through the end of this August.
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The training material was made available to the consulates after a federal judge declared the visa ban on citizens of 75 countries illegal, due to the perceived risk held by the administration of President Donald Trump that people from these nations could be admitted into the United States and rely on public subsidies.
The Trump administration announced this Tuesday that it was going to revoke B-1 and B-2 visas (tourism and business) for thousands of people who used them to subsequently request asylum in the country after entering it legally.
Similarly, in its crusade against immigration, the White House wants to raise the requirements to obtain the H-1B work visa and demand that employers who use it to attract skilled labor pay more than $100,000 per year for its renewal.
[Publicidad]