When the National Visa Center Fails: Bureaucracy, Delays, and the Human Cost
Posted on August 4, 2025
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.
She then contacted us – ready to file a mandamus lawsuit. We thought that before doing so, it would make sense to try to resolve this with NVC first: lawsuits can be expensive and time-consuming. After we contacted an NVC manager, NVC acted immediately. And after the client updated the documentation, the case was forwarded to the consulate for the immigrant visa interview.
This experience, unfortunately, is not unique. In another one of our cases, a US citizen was on the NVC “carousel” for months and months over the sufficiency of his affidavit of support before contacting us. Across the US, US citizens, lawful permanent residents, and businesses report similar stories: cases lingering for months without movement; document uploads going unacknowledged; and families and businesses stuck in limbo. These delays are not only frustrating—they’re deeply consequential.
The impact of these delays is profound. Families remain separated while spouses and children abroad wait for interviews that never get scheduled. Employers who need foreign workers must wait as months pass with no progress. Individuals seeking to join their loved ones, take up job offers, or start a new life in the U.S. are instead left in a state of uncertainty.
These delays are not merely administrative—they inflict financial and emotional harm. Petitioners in the United States and the beneficiaries outside the US often waited years for USCIS to approve the petition, and spent thousands of dollars in legal fees and translations, only to see their cases stagnate at the NVC. The emotional toll is equally significant. Clients describe sleepless nights, disrupted family plans, and the growing sense that the system is broken.
In some cases, it becomes necessary to resubmit documents, escalate the matter through congressional offices, or even file complaints with the Department of State. These additional steps, while sometimes effective, create unnecessary expense and hardship for applicants who have already done everything required of them.
If you are having a problem at the National Visa Center, do not hesitate to contact us.