DOS Cable on V Visa Workload

Cable Text: UNCLASSIFIED TELEGRAM

January 19, 2001

To: ALL DIPLOMATIC AND CONSULAR POSTS - ROUTINE
Origin: VO
From: SECSTATE WASHDC (STATE 10534 - ROUTINE)
TAGS: CVIS, CMGT
Captions: None

Subject: PROJECTED "V" VISA WORKLOADS

Ref: 00 STATE 242292

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<>1. As described in reftel, the Legal Immigration Family Equity "LIFE" Act creates a new nonimmigrant "V" visa category for the spouses and children of LPRs for whom second preference petitions were filed on or before the date of enactment of LIFE and who have been waiting for at least three years for petition approval, adjustment of status or an immigrant visa. While the date of enactment fixes one end of the definition of the class by requiring petitions to have been filed on or by December 21, 2000, the other end of the pipeline will not be reached until the last case filed on that date has waited past December 21, 2003.

2. The list below was developed to assist consular managers in assessing the apparent effect of this new legislation on workload and resources. The figures represent a count of F2A immigrant visa petition beneficiaries on record at the National Visa Center. The count includes only non-current F2A immigrant visa petitions which are at least three years old. It includes immigrant visa files which have already been sent to posts because the Qualifying Date has been reached; such cases could be eligible for "VV visas if the cut-off date has not been reached.

3. Not listed, however, are any F2A petitions which are current. These must be processed as regular immigrant visas. Applicants will not be permitted to apply for a "V'' non-immigrant visa if they are the beneficiaries of a current F2A petition. The Department intends to make this clear to the public when issuing regulations on the new V category. Also not listed are cases that NVC has not reCeived from INS, which, for example, would include cases filed before the December cutoff, but which have not been approved. We have no reliable estimates for this part of the class.

4. The Department and INS are working to develop the necessary regulations to implement the LIFE Act. The Department informally advised Congressional staff that we intend to process V visa applications in a manner similar to K (fiance') visa processing. In septel, we will provide posts our general thoughts as to how this might be accomplished.

POST APPLICANTS

Abidjan 107
Abu Dhabi 99 + 7 Beirut
Accra 1,873
Addis Ababa 1,305
Algiers 48
Amman 841
Amsterdam 34
Ankara 310
Asuncion 26
Athens 20
Auckland 35
Bangkok 196
Belgrade 163
Belize 146
Bern 10
Bogota 1,954
Bucharest 255
Budapest 27
Brazzaville 1
Bridgetown 735
Brussels 13
Buenos Aires 104
Cairo 236 + 95 Khartoum files
Caracas 323
Casablanca 170
Chennai 515
Ciudad Juarez 206,667
ColoMbo 46
Copenhagen 4
Cotonou 9
Dakar 279
Dar es Salaam 30
Damascus 272
Dhaka 3,435
Djibouti 26
Doha 20
Dublin 37
Frankfurt 144
Freetown 244
Georgetown 1,722
Guatemala City 2,391
Guangzhou 3,933
Guyaquil 2,231
Hamilton 10
Harare 20
Havana 1,967
Helsinki 9
Ho Chi Minh City 2,264
Hong Kong 505
Islamabad 2,162
Istanbul 34
Jakarta 79
Jerusalem 190
Johannesburg 31
Kathmandu 36
Kingston 3,664
Kinshasa 65
Kuala Lumpur 73
Kuwait 39
Lagos 1,753
La Paz 228
Libreville 6
Lima 1,367
Lisbon 117
Lome 36
London 367
Lusaka 12
Madrid 52
Managua 938
Manama 4
Manila 6,958
Monrovia 192
Montevideo 33
Montreal 633
Moscow 402
Mumbai 1,387
Muscat 9
Nicosia 16
Nairobi 213
Naples 126
Nassau 86
New Delhi 1,375
Niamey 5
Oslo 13
Panama 125
Paramaribo 34
Paris 90
Phnom Penh 95
Prague 109
Praia 376
Perth 2
Ponta Delgada 29
Port au Prince 6,267
Port Moresby 9
Port of Spain 782
Rangoon 81
Reykjavik 7
Rio de Janeiro 294
Riyadh 100
Sanaa 885
San Jose 140
San Salvador 4,758
Santiago 138
Santo Domingo 14,596
Seoul 800
Singapore 29
Skopje 46
Sofia 145
Stockholm 24
Suva 104
Sydney 27
Taipei 568
Tegucigalpa 2,415
Tel Aviv 86
Tirana 93
Tokyo 185
Tunis 12
Va11etta 7
Vienna 17
Vientiane 43
Warsaw 3,791
Yaounde 114
Zagreb 31
ZZZ 789 (homeless cases to be assigned)

Worldwide total 296,857

5. MINIMIZE CONSIDERED.

ALBRIGHT