So – we now have the CEAC data and I spent a couple of hours on a LIVE session (linked below) showing that data this morning. CEAC data is useful to confirm the highest case numbers selected in each region (below), but it also normally helps us understand embassy performance each month, issuance data and so on. This data has been incredibly useful to us for a number of years and it has been a wonderful tool to help people understand their situation.

Now – in mid November we noticed that the CEAC system (which is the source of the data) had been changed adding two new fields, passport and name, as highlighted below.


We quickly realized that we could still extract data using NA / NA for the two fields, and Xarthisius extracted the data using that technique. However, it is clear that some percentage of cases are misreported at “holes”, and we now know that some cases can only be checked with the passport and name. The affected cases are all cases that have been scheduled for interview or their CEAC record touched for some update.

So – what does this mean? Well it means we will probably have a lot less data available this year. We won’t have reliable counts of how many visas are issued, how many cases get scheduled at each embassy and so on. It will be much harder to assess which embassies are backlogged and their month to month capacity. That will be very damaging since people won’t have 100% reliable data on which to decide whether they should move to another embassy. We can’t be sure exactly what data will be unavailable to us, so this story will develop over time, but at the moment my assumption is that we will be going slowly blind over the year, and we will be less and less informed as time goes on. Xarthisius can identify these cases that “go dark” but after that we won’t know anything about them.

Some countries/embassies have Telegram/whatsapp channels specific to that country/embassy and those channels can provide some useful information – so I encourage you to be involved in those groups to share information – especially for some of the larger embassies.

Now – if your case shows as a “dark hole” in Xarthisius’ site you can do the following.

1. You might be able to retrieve your CEAC data by inputting the passport number and lastname at https://ceac.state.gov/CEACStatTracker/Status.aspx
2. In some cases they may have used your spouse’s passport for the case – so try that if you cannot get in to your case status.
3. You can also try your name in the name field and “NA” for the passport field.
4. Some people may find that even with the passport and lastname they still cannot retrieve the status from CEAC. I don’t know whether that will be fixed later or not.

By all means give me feedback and ideas about this. I don’t know exactly how the data is being updated, and it seems possible that they will make mistakes with the information.

NOW – let me be clear. Whether your case is affected or not makes ABSOLUTELY no difference to your case. It does not indicate a problem, it is just the status check system. No need to panic.


Here is the New Years Day LIVE video where I showed and discussed the CEAC data.