Blog

Listening to the bluster of the Trump Administration, one gets the impression that – legally – any person can be denied a visa JUST BECAUSE: just because their personal views are abhorrent to this Administration; just because they express those views publicly; just because they were involved in some traffic stop 15 years ago. But here’s the thing – that’s not true.

The Trump Administration may not like it, but it is subject to the law. The courts in the US have repeatedly handed the Administration loss after loss when it has tried to deport individuals on free speech and other questionable grounds.  But visa applicants outside the US do not have the US courts as a legal backstop: courts have bound themselves by the doctrine of consular non-reviewability – disempowering themselves from the review of visa denials. This means that no matter how ridiculous a visa refusal may be, courts generally will not get involved.

We always hear about sham K-1 fiancée and sham marriage relationship accusations from consular officers, but what about… sham divorces? In some countries, this is a “thing” – where a couple cannot receive some state benefit (e.g., reward of an apartment), but if the couple are divorced, then one of the pair is entitled to that benefit. Well, for US immigration purposes, this is also a “thing”: because married adult children of U.S. citizens (F3 immigration category) face significantly longer immigrant visa wait times than their unmarried counterparts (F1 immigration category), some consider a strategy that seems, on the surface, like a practical solution, particularly if there are children involved. The idea is to legally divorce in order to be classified as unmarried; immigrate more quickly under the F1 category and bring along any children; and then, after arrival in the United States as an immigrant, visit the home country, legally remarry, and petition for the spouse under the F2A immigration category. The lure is understandable – accelerating the immigration process for one spouse and the children - but the fraud is not.

As of August 2025, the Visa Bulletin shows that F1 applicants have a priority date cutoff around July 15, 2016, translating to approximately a nine-year wait, while F3 applicants face a cutoff of August 1, 2011, which amounts to about a fourteen-year wait. That five-year difference obviously can have a major impact, especially when young children are involved. Will they be spending those 5 years in the home country or in the United States? However, divorcing for the sole purpose of jumping into a faster-moving category is fraught with legal risk. U.S. immigration authorities have consistently considered “sham divorces” as fraud, and, in many cases, treat the couple as still married for immigration purposes.

For many families pursuing lawful immigration to the United States, the approval of a petition by USCIS should mark a significant step forward. Instead, it often signals the beginning of a frustrating and opaque chapter at the National Visa Center (NVC), a centralized State Department agency responsible for pre-processing immigrant visa cases. While the NVC’s stated mission is to facilitate the visa process, its inefficiencies often turn it into a bottleneck that causes months—and sometimes years—of needless delays, confusion, and hardship.

One such example is a case where an American citizen had her immigration case for her husband pending with the National Visa Center for 2 years. After USCIS approved the I-130 petition, the case was forwarded to the NVC for consular processing. She paid all the required fees and uploaded supporting documentation; she expected the process to move forward. Instead, nothing happened. There was no confirmation of document completeness, no communication, and no progress. Efforts to seek clarification were met with generic responses or no answers at all. USCIS had already transferred the case to NVC; the embassy had not received the case from NVC. The NVC, which should have been reviewing the documentation submitted and preparing the case for interview scheduling, essentially allowed the file to gather dust.

If there is any better indicator of Trump’s Fortress America policies – deterring and discouraging legal visitors, students, workers, entrepreneurs, and immigrants – one need only look at the most recent visa developments:

1. There will be no more visa interview waiver for those applicants for visas under the age of 14 and over 79. So young kids, including babies, will have to accompany their parents to interviews. For those over 79, there is an exception: if they are applying within 12 months of the prior visa’s expiration. Otherwise, 80, 90 and older visa applicants will need to travel to the embassies and consulates to convince a consul that they really do not plan to overstay their visas.

The US used to be a welcoming country, opening its arms to tourists, business visitors, investors, executives, managers, creatives, and professionals such as scientists, mathematicians, and IT and business specialists. Not anymore. The mantra of this Administration? “A visa is a privilege, not a right.” But while each country of course has the right to determine who may enter, each country also has laws to define who may enter and who may not. Those immigration laws are to be complied with, not ignored, twisted, and run over by the whims and caprices of an Administration Run Amok.