John,
I wanted to follow up on our previous email about National Visit Your Relatives Day to provide more context on the visa backlog.
Currently, the U.S. has a massive backlog of unprocessed visa applications, which includes many Iranians who were subjected to Donald Trump’s Muslim ban for four long years. As the State Department has told me, the Covid-19 pandemic has drastically inhibited the U.S. government’s ability to process and approve all visa applications across the world.
Consulates and embassies around the world are impacted by travel restrictions, lockdowns, and staff shortages. So, even though the Muslim ban has been rescinded, many Iranian Americans have waited in limbo with few answers and little hope for reconnecting with loved ones. We continue to get requests for assistance from families hoping that they can finally get the visa they’ve long sought.
While we appreciate President Biden’s swift rescission of the Muslim ban, he needs to take responsibility and end the backlog. Each day without a solution is another day families are separated to no fault of their own.
If you’re exhausted by administrative failures like this, please consider contributing $10 to NIAC. [[link removed]] With your help, we can continue pressuring the Biden administration to take action NOW.
Thank you,
Ryan Costello
Policy Director, NIAC
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