Our client, a naturalized U.S. citizen originally from the Philippines, retained our firm to assist with a consular processing petition for her Pakistani husband, who was residing in Abu Dhabi, UAE. We filed the I-130 petition on May 4, 2023, and USCIS approved it on May 16, 2024.
On June 6, 2024—less than a month after the approval—we submitted the immigrant visa application to the NVC, and the case was documentarily qualified on June 13, 2024. However, due to severe interview scheduling delays at the U.S. Consulate in Abu Dhabi, and following multiple denied expedite requests, we advised our client to transfer the interview venue to Islamabad, Pakistan. We submitted the transfer request to the NVC on October 23, 2025, and promptly received an interview notice scheduling the husband’s interview for January 5, 2026, at the U.S. Embassy in Islamabad. Although he attended the interview and was recommended for approval, his visa was placed on hold due to the Presidential Proclamation pausing immigrant visas for 75 countries.
Once the visa pause order was vacated, we immediately followed up with the U.S. Embassy in Islamabad. The husband was granted a second interview on October 23, 2026, where his immigrant visa was officially issued.