How does the prioritization of visas for Ukraine citizens impact processing times for other cases?
Immigration shifts cases around from different countries to different US embassies and consulates on a more regular basis than you would think. Things happen all the time; natural disasters, politics, and things that occur that make it such that visas can’t go through a certain US embassy or consulate.
Immigration has determined that for individuals who are going through a spouse or fiancé visa process in Ukraine, those visas will now be adjudicated or reviewed at the US embassy in Frankfurt, Germany. They are an embassy that is very efficient. They’ve done a really great job at keeping cases moving forward. They do have a high volume of cases but it’s much lower compared to others.
There would be an impact on wait times from the transfer of the cases to the embassy in Frankfurt but overall, it’s not going to have an extreme impact on wait times. There’s no way for anyone to say that it’s going to add a certain amount of weeks or months to any given case. It really is just going to depend.
Immigration wait times are long because there is a shortage of staff at USCIS and at US embassies and consulates. There are a lot of other factors, even pre-COVID, that caused immigration case wait times to increase.
While they are moving these cases, please understand that in very serious circumstances, the visas for individuals from Ukraine are being prioritized. But again, it’s not going to have too much of an impact on making the wait times much longer.
