Hiring dozens of foreign service officers is underway by the U.S. Department of State. The increase in staffing is an effort to correct hiring shortages that contributed to the visa backlogs in processing. The Department stated they are planning on increasing the number of hires to not only fill positions vacated through attrition but beyond. Over 60 limited noncareer appointment consular positions, or LNAs, are being filled in the fiscal year 2022.

Some posts won’t be filled until the second half of FY 2022 or in FY 2023.

The State Department further clarified that the increase in staffing won’t immediately resolve the current visa backlogs. Pandemic restrictions remain in place in many locations and as such, individuals in those areas can expect to continue to wait for in-person consular interviews, if needed.

This latest announcement is an update to a previous announcement made during a June 2021 congressional hearing. At that time, the State Department shared their plan to hire more than 500 new foreign and civil officers to improve visa processing wait times. Backlogs skyrocketed during the pandemic. U.S. embassies and consulates shut down or had greatly reduced operations as a result of the Covid pandemic.

Visa processing has since been reinstituted at most consulates. However, extensive backlogs exist. Over 439,000 people are waiting to schedule their green card interview, as of January 2022. This is over seven times higher than the average waitlist prior to the pandemic.

At this time, it is estimated that it may take the State Department over 50 months to return to pre-pandemic wait times for scheduling green card interviews. Some additional approaches have been suggested to address the issue, including calling back former consular officers, extending certain expired visas automatically, among others.

A pressing issue is the number of nurses from the Philippines who are waiting on green card interviews. As such, the Department of State asked the Manila consulate to prioritize healthcare-related green card processing. In addition, the Department is prioritizing filling Manila positions for officer positions.

If you have questions about your green card interview or any other immigration-related question, contact us at ILBSG. We closely monitor ongoing updates to policies and legislation to ensure our clients get the right advice.

U.S. Department of State Visa Backlogs