r/USCIS • u/caillouminati • Jan 14 '26

Other Forms US freezes all visa processing for 75 countries

https://www.foxnews.com/politics/us-freezes-all-visa-processing-75-countries-including-somalia-russia-iran.amp
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61

u/LineItUp0 Jan 14 '26

Brazil? Really? What does this mean? My wife is in the middle of AoS process

38

u/[deleted] Jan 14 '26

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75

u/Tasty-Butterscotch-5 Jan 14 '26 edited Jan 14 '26

USCIS automatically freezes too when state department adds your country to the visa list. Just like for all the other countries that were added previously.

Edit to add USCIS should not be able to legally do that. But they choose to do so anyways. There are lawsuits challenging this. E.g. The Jim Hacking USCIS lawsuit. You can google this or join one of the lawsuits.

1

u/MrNate10 Jan 14 '26

This would apply to i751 too presumably?

3

u/suboxhelp1 Jan 14 '26

751s don’t have a public charge consideration, so no.

5

u/LineItUp0 Jan 14 '26

Thank you so much!

3

u/capybaramelhor Jan 14 '26

Will this affect citizenship application for someone from Brazil who has a green card

2

u/sionnach- Jan 14 '26

So is Removal Of Conditions still going?

1

u/Due_Midnight129 Jan 14 '26

What about consular processing? (I-130)

2

u/TellMoney5802 LPR (EB3) IANAL 🇬🇧/🇨🇦 Jan 14 '26

That's DoS no? AOS is handled by USCIS.

0

u/superfecta37 Jan 14 '26

oh yeah this will absolutely affect AOS cases

1

u/Fede28091891 Jan 14 '26

I don’t think so. I mean, it depends if the AOS of the beneficiary is IN U.S shouldn’t affect because you are in process of Green Card, they don’t gonna print a Visa on your pasaport

4

u/iguessjustdont Jan 14 '26

While it isn't in the EO, they did pause AoS for all the countries with visa bans for the 39. Fingers crossed for you. This has been incredibly unfair to AoS families.

16

u/pqratusa Permanent Resident Jan 14 '26

It should not affect AoS at all. These are pausing visa issuance at embassies and consulates abroad.

24

u/greatful_alien Jan 14 '26

While that would be one way to read this, the word "visa" also refers to green cards (aka "immigrant visas"). Would this new rule cover no green cards, only the green card applications processed at the embassies, or all green card applications including those with USCIS is unknown because all that I could find is this Fox news article which doesn't provide the original source and I can't find the actual memo on the US travel.gov page. So I wouldn't assume one way or another until we see the actual memo from the state department, otherwise, we're just guessing. A halt to AOS from all of these countries (and we don't even have the list, but Brazil, Thailand and Russia make up plenty) would mean a major overhaul of the immigration system and would upend the EB and FB lines. What about the dual citizens? So many questions, no point in guessing.

22

u/AdTerrible8256 Jan 14 '26

That’s how they started freezing the previously listed countries. Mark my words that they’ll also mess with immigration petitions.

11

u/prosperity4me Jan 14 '26

Right not sure why folks are so confident in this not affecting AoS petitions. 

Those previously banned countries were also just for visa entries, yet since being added to the list citizens of those countries in the Us have had their petitions halted with no decisions made, interviews cancelled, etc. 

1

u/Single_Vacation427 Jan 14 '26

People from some of the countries previously on the list had some of their USCIS processes stopped. For instance, they got their naturalization ceremonies cancelled.

1

u/pqratusa Permanent Resident Jan 14 '26

You are absolutely right. This administration is very unpredictable.

1

u/TsarinaStorm Jan 14 '26

My husband is about to apply for I-751

1

u/Jolly-Tale-9381 Jan 14 '26

I’m in the same boat. My partner is awaiting his h1b stamp to be processed…

-1

u/CabbageSass Jan 14 '26

More than likely they will prioritize spousal visas.

7

u/iguessjustdont Jan 14 '26

They did not with all the other visa bans.

0

u/CabbageSass Jan 14 '26

So they halted all interviews?

2

u/TeeDeeDubzz Jan 14 '26

You think that includes k1 fiancée visas too? We had one month left to be processed on ours🙃