Good morning, everybody.
I have been getting a lot of questions lately from people about when I think the State Department is going to reopen the embassies. And so far, we've seen very little movement.
A few of our clients have had visas issued, but we're not seeing many interviews or much action at the embassies.
I think it's entirely possible that President Trump does not reopen the embassies until after the election. I think we might be in for a long haul here.
The problem is that the embassies are severely understaffed. The State Department's budget has been trimmed to the bone.
And just like we're seeing that USCIS is out of money, I think the State Department is going to start pleading that they're out of money as well. And we're not seeing any action at the embassy.
So, I wish I had better news.
I wish I had some kind of a sign that things were going to reopen soon at the embassies.
I hope people start asking these questions of the President and of Secretary of State Pompeo.
I don't think that a worldwide ban on embassies being open is the way to go, especially as many of these countries aren't being affected by COVID-19 anymore.
We just saw New Zealand has no COVID-19 cases.
So I think it's being used as an excuse.
The coronavirus is being used to justify the closure of embassies, because we all know that Donald Trump and Stephen Miller don't want immigrants coming to the United States and they feel like they have a perfect excuse.
So don't be looking for the embassies to open anytime soon.
I'm sorry to report that. Hopefully I'm wrong. Let's wait and see.
But in the meantime, we're still filing applications, cases are still processing up until the point of reaching the embassy.
So you might as well keep proceeding up until the point that you can't proceed anymore.
That's sort of our modus operandi, our approach, at the office.
