Both visa pauses have been vacated
Posted 12 September 2026. This page tracks a live situation and will be updated as the two cases move.
Two separate pauses stopped immigrant visas for two different groups of people. Two separate federal courts have now struck both of them down, and on 10 September 2026 the State Department told every embassy and consulate in the world that the guidance behind them is rescinded. Neither pause is a lawful reason to refuse anyone. What follows is what the documents actually say, what the Department has committed to doing, and what is still unresolved.
Both pauses are void. Refusals issued solely because of either one have been set aside and sent back to consular officers to be decided again on the merits, for everyone affected and not only the people who sued.
That is not the same as a visa, and it is not a timetable. The Department has given no date by which reconsideration will be finished, and it has rescheduled immigrant visa appointments worldwide in the meantime.
What the two pauses were
On 19 December 2025 the Department, working with DHS, told consular officers to refuse every diversity visa applicant under INA 221(g) unless they were already refused on some other ground. The stated reason was national security concerns about applicant vetting and identity verification. Refusals began the following day.
This one is running against a clock that no court can easily stop. Diversity visas cannot ordinarily be issued after the end of the fiscal year, which falls on 30 September 2026.
On 14 January 2026 the Department told consular officers to refuse under INA 221(g) every immigrant visa applicant who is a national of one of 75 countries assessed as a high risk of becoming a public charge, again unless already refused on another ground. It took effect on 21 January 2026.
The trigger was nationality, not the embassy you interviewed at. If you interviewed at US Embassy London on a non-UK passport and were caught by this, you were caught by this pause. More than 43,000 immigrant visa applications fall within the resulting court order.
What the courts decided
In Catholic Legal Immigration Network, Inc. v. Rubio, No. 1:26-cv-00858-JAV, the US District Court for the Southern District of New York vacated the immigrant visa pause and remanded the refusals made under it, so that consular officers reconsider those cases without applying it. Our existing page on that decision, the nationality visa pause, struck down, covers it in detail.
Vacatur is not limited to the plaintiffs. It removes the policy itself.
In Medani v. Trump, No. 5:26-cv-06332-EJD, the US District Court for the Northern District of California temporarily vacated the diversity visa pause, the 75-country immigrant visa pause, and a third policy adopted by USCIS. The court certified a subclass of all selectees and derivative beneficiaries under the FY-2026 Diversity Visa Program who were subject to either pause, and ordered the Department, to the extent practicable and in good faith, to take all reasonable steps during the remainder of the diversity visa fiscal year to reconsider applications refused solely under either pause and to resume ordinary adjudication.
Note the word temporarily. This came through a preliminary injunction, so it holds while the case proceeds rather than settling it.
The US District Court for the District of Columbia granted similar relief to named plaintiffs in Ivanov v. Trump, covering roughly 1,900 DV-2026 selectees and their beneficiaries, and in Storie v. Trump. In Storie the court ordered the Department to complete the adjudication within 30 days, and posts have been told to take the required steps by 24 September 2026.
What the Department has told its posts
This is the instruction that actually reaches the officer at the window, and you can read it: the government filed it in court on 11 September 2026. It went to all diplomatic and consular posts as an immediate action request. In its own words, both pauses are no longer in effect, it rescinds the underlying guidance in its entirety, and no applicants may be refused under INA 221(g) for either pause. What it requires of posts:
- Find the cases. All posts must run the 221(g) tracker report to identify applications refused under either pause.
- Work them oldest first. Posts begin with the earliest refusals, 20 December 2025 for the diversity visa pause and 21 January 2026 for the immigrant visa pause, and move forward chronologically to the present.
- Contact applicants in writing to request anything missing, including updated medicals, and continue processing.
- Clear the refusal with a specific case note recording that the pause is no longer in effect, using wording the cable sets out.
- Articulate any new refusal. Where an officer enters a fresh INA 221(g) refusal for something else, such as an expired medical or missing vetting, they must make clear notes of the specific reasons and clearly articulate the reason both in the case notes and to the applicant.
- Complete the public charge worksheet in all immigrant visa cases, including diversity visa cases, and complete the public charge training.
- Clean up the websites. Posts had to strip references to the vacated pauses from their own pages and confirm they had done so by 11 September 2026.
Applicants may be asked to re-appear for an additional interview. That is expressly contemplated by the cable and is not a sign that something has gone wrong.
The same cable gives posts the official answer to the rescheduling that has hit immigrant visa appointments worldwide: “In early August, the Department of State launched a global training initiative at all of our embassies and consulates worldwide. To accommodate this in-depth training, appointments for immigrant visa (IV) services will be adjusted.” In court the Department added that the rescheduling also buys it time to identify and reconsider the cases covered by these orders. The training is the new public charge training: see public charge, and our live notice on the cancellations.
Where each case stands now
In a status report filed on 8 September 2026, supported by a sworn declaration from the Bureau of Consular Affairs, the Department told the court that it can identify the affected applications, though some need manual review by the post, and that more than 43,000 are covered. It has rescheduled immigrant visa appointments globally through September 2026 to make time for the work.
There is no fixed date by which reconsideration will be complete. Cases proceed on a rolling basis as they are identified. Some applicants will need an updated medical examination or police certificate depending on how much time has passed, some will be asked for more information relevant to public charge, and some will need nothing further before issuance.
Ten days after the injunction, the plaintiffs went back to court saying the Department had not scheduled a single interview and was cancelling ones already booked. At a hearing on 10 September 2026 the Department did not deny that it had neither scheduled nor conducted a single interview, nor issued a single diversity visa, since the order. It said it had spent the time writing guidance. The cable went out that morning.
The court said it was troubled by both the inaction and the ten-day delay, and noted that every day costs selectees their chance: on the Department's own figures roughly 230 diversity visa applications a day were adjudicated in September 2025. It ordered the Department to file a status report every Monday, Wednesday and Friday until the end of the fiscal year, starting 14 September 2026, and invited briefing on whether there has been full compliance and whether contempt may be appropriate.
The hard problem is the calendar. The court itself flagged appellate authority holding that district courts cannot order diversity visas to be processed after the fiscal year ends on 30 September 2026. If you are a DV-2026 selectee, treat that date as real and act now.
If your case was caught by either pause
- Do not start again. Your refusal has been set aside by operation of the court's order. There is nothing to refile and no new fee.
- Check your documents have not gone stale. Medical examinations and police certificates expire. If yours has, or is close, get it renewed now rather than after the post asks, because the post will work oldest cases first and you do not want to be the reason your own case waits.
- Watch your email and your AIS account daily. One London case this month was given a new interview date with less than 24 hours' notice. Rescheduling is happening, and the notice can be almost none.
- Prepare for the public charge questions. The officer reconsidering your case will complete a public charge worksheet covering all five statutory factors. Our public charge page sets out what those factors are and includes a statement template.
- If you get a new 221(g), read it carefully. Officers have been told to articulate the specific reason in what they tell you. See how to prevent and resolve a 221(g).
- DV-2026 selectees: escalate now. With the fiscal year ending on 30 September 2026 and the court already asking about contempt, this is the moment to contact the post, and to make your congressional representatives aware. Our guidance on congressional inquiries explains how.
What this does not mean
A vacated pause is not an approved visa. Your case goes back to a consular officer to be decided on its merits, and every ordinary ground of ineligibility still applies. A refusal that had a separate, genuine ground stands.
Public charge has not gone away. It is the opposite: the officer reconsidering your case works through a public charge worksheet and has been through new public charge training, and their adjudication may be reviewed by a manager.
Other restrictions are untouched. The cable is explicit that applications ineligible under the INA, including under the Presidential Proclamation issued under INA 212(f), need no further processing beyond clearing the pause refusal.
And neither ruling is final. The immigrant visa vacatur is a district court judgment that the government may appeal, and the diversity visa vacatur is a preliminary injunction that holds only while the case runs. Check the current position before making irreversible plans.
Read the documents yourself
Everything on this page comes from documents filed on a public court docket. Nothing here rests on a leaked copy or on social media. If you see a version of the cable or the worksheet circulating online, treat it as unverified unless it appears as a filing on a docket.
- Cable 26 STATE 88862, 10 September 2026, to all diplomatic and consular posts: filed as ECF 95-1 in Medani v. Trump, No. 5:26-cv-06332 (N.D. Cal.), on 11 September 2026
- Medani v. Trump, No. 5:26-cv-06332-EJD (N.D. Cal.): preliminary injunction of 28 August 2026, and the order enforcing it of 10 September 2026 (ECF 93)
- CLINIC v. Rubio, No. 1:26-cv-00858-JAV (S.D.N.Y.): order of 21 August 2026, and the Department's status report and supporting declaration of 8 September 2026 (ECF 96 and ECF 96-1)
- INA 212(a)(4) and 9 FAM 302.8, the published law and guidance on public charge
Dockets can be read through PACER or CourtListener. Our related pages: the nationality visa pause, struck down, public charge, 221(g).
American Visa Guide is an independent community resource. This page describes court orders and government documents; it is not legal advice and your situation may differ. If your case involves an inadmissibility ground, a prior refusal, or anything beyond the pauses themselves, consider consulting an immigration attorney affiliated with the American Immigration Lawyers Association.
Scope note: this site is written for family immigrant visa cases processing through US Embassy London. The court orders described here apply nationwide and worldwide, but the practical notes about interviews, documents and the window are drawn from London cases.