For those that have been scheduled for an interview, people often wonder whether it makes sense to attend the interview or not. This is a question I get asked very frequently – and it is really difficult to give an answer because everyone has different circumstances. But let me capture my thoughts.

First. I consider the two pauses differently to the ban. The 75 country pause and the DV lottery pause are being vigorously attacked in court proceedings, and the chance of success in those cases is very high, in my opinion. The ban though is different. So – let’s discuss.

First, although everyone is affected by the DV pause, the 75 country pause and the 39 country travel ban affected a designated list of countries, and there are some countries affected by both the ban and the 75 country pause. To visualize that – I created a diagram that shows whether each country is affected by the ban, the 75 country pause, or both.

So – looking at the diagram above you can see which action impacts you.

So – would I recommend attending the interviews.

For the pause countries (the 75 country pause and the DV lottery pause), I recommend people strongly consider attending their interview. It is a risk to do so, because attending the interview means that you will pay your interview fee. At the interview you will (currently) be placed on 221g refusal, which is a temporary refusal. However, if the pauses are removed you will then be able to get your visas issued with a small delay. I lean toward attending the interview because I firmly believe the pauses will be removed before the end of September 30th. Do read the rest of this article to see some tips and points about that though.

For the banned countries (the 39 countries affected by the ban), I generally do NOT recommend attending your interview. The reason is this. I do not believe the ban will be removed before the end of the year, and the only lawsuits fighting aspects of the ban focus on visa issuance versus entry ban. The entry ban will remain in place, and has been thoroughly challenged in previous lawsuits.

OK – hopefully that makes the basic advice clear. But how about those further points:

  • The chance of the pauses being lifted for you is significantly higher if you are a plaintiff on a lawsuit. There are some scenarios where legal action might encourage the government to remove the pauses, but we might see a “plaintiffs only” relief.
  • If you can attend your interview and delay your medical, that might be a good option. Some embassies (such as Suva) have approved that strategy, but some embassies might be obstructive. Just be careful that if the pauses are removed, then medical capacity could become an obstacle. So – book the medical fast if the pause is removed.
  • Some people that attended the medical and interview already might need to repeat the medical because the visa validity is based on the date of the medical. In general though, you need to communicate with the embassy about that to make sure they understand you are repeating the medical.
  • Some people may try and delay their interview. Whilst that is a strategy that reduces the risk of losing the fees, it also increases a risk that appointments will be hard to get later. Use caution with this strategy.
  • Only you can decide whether to risk the fees or not in attending the interview. Attending the interview increases the speed for the issuance later, but you must weigh the impact to your personal situation of risking that money.
  • Don’t attend the interview thinking you will benefit from a NIE (waiver). In general people underestimate how rare NIE exceptions are. They don’t care how well qualified you are, they don’t care about your family being in America and so on. They don’t care. So – don’t assume you will get an NIE because you think your case will sway them. 99.9% of the time, it won’t.

OK – I hope that helps!