The Trump administration has paused or rescheduled immigrant visa appointments at US embassies and consulates worldwide as part of a new “global training initiative” for consular officers, the State Department said.T…

The Trump administration has paused or rescheduled immigrant visa appointments at US embassies and consulates worldwide as part of a new “global training initiative” for consular officers, the State Department said.The training, launched this month, is intended to ensure officers evaluate visa applicants “comprehensively and consistently”, with a particular focus on identifying applicants who could become dependent on US public benefits.“To accommodate this in-depth training, appointments for visa services will be adjusted,” a State Department spokesperson said. The department has not provided a timeline for when the appointments will resume.The Financial Times reported that applicants with scheduled immigrant visa interviews had received emails informing them that their appointments had been cancelled or rescheduled. They were told that new dates would be provided at a later stage.The latest disruption could have significant consequences for applicants who have already spent thousands of dollars and made travel arrangements for their interviews. Brian Simmons, an attorney at immigration law firm Fragomen in Washington, told the FT that many applicants had also made major changes to their lives in preparation for their scheduled interviews.The disruption is particularly significant because the Trump administration last year introduced a policy requiring immigrant visa applicants to generally complete processing in their country of citizenship. The policy can also affect people who legally live and work in the US, including some applicants married to US citizens or those with American-born children.Explained | What are H-1B visas for skilled workers and what changes loom?As a result, some applicants have been required to travel outside the US for their interviews. The postponement could leave applicants stranded abroad while adding further delays to an already lengthy immigration process.The visa appointment changes come amid a broader immigration crackdown under President Donald Trump. The administration has expanded immigration enforcement, tightened visa and green-card rules, ended almost all refugee resettlement and introduced new restrictions affecting legal immigration.The administration has also faced legal challenges to several of its immigration policies.Last week, US District Judge Jeannette Vargas struck down a separate State Department policy that had suspended immigrant visa processing for applicants from 75 mostly poorer countries. Vargas ruled that the policy interfered with the discretion and decision-making authority Congress had assigned to consular officers. She also struck down visa refusals made under the policy and gave the parties until September 11 to propose how remaining issues in the case should be resolved.The latest appointment disruption therefore comes as the administration faces continuing scrutiny over its efforts to tighten legal as well as illegal immigration. Trump has defended the crackdown as necessary to improve domestic security and ensure that immigrants entering the country do not become dependent on public benefits.The administration’s approach has drawn criticism from human rights and immigrant advocacy groups, which argue that some of the new restrictions are discriminatory and raise concerns about due process and free speech.

Source: Deccan Herald