This guide is for anyone whose green card ends with an interview at a US consulate abroad. Since about August 25, 2026, the State Department has postponed immigrant visa interviews at most of its posts so consular officers can finish new public charge training. It has named no end date and published no list of the posts that have restarted. PERM Tracker's consulates page puts State's own scheduling month for each post beside the immigrant visas that post issued each month, both read from State's tables, so you can see where your consulate stood before and after.
What it reaches, in one line
Every immigrant visa interview at a consulate: family, employment, diversity and special immigrants. It doesn't reach an I-485 filed inside the US, which USCIS decides, and it isn't about visitor, student or work visas such as the H-1B.
What happened, in order
Most of this comes from what the State Department said under oath in CLINIC v. Rubio, a case in the Southern District of New York. State hasn't published a notice of the worldwide pause on its own site or in the Federal Register.
| When | What | Where it's on record |
|---|---|---|
| Jan 21, 2026 | State stops issuing immigrant visas to nationals of 75 countries. Interviews go on, but nothing is issued | State's update of Aug 28, 2026 |
| May 21, 2026 | A USCIS memo calls adjustment inside the US a matter of "discretion and administrative grace" | USCIS memo PM-602-0199 |
| Jul 20, 2026 | DHS publishes a new public charge rule. It covers I-485s filed from September 18, 2026 | 91 FR 45324 |
| Aug 21, 2026 | The court strikes down the 75-country pause. State later counted over 43,000 refusals made under it | The court's opinion and State's filing of Sep 8 |
| About Aug 25, 2026 | State postpones immigrant visa interviews worldwide for public charge training, with an in-person part | State's sworn filings of Aug 28, Sep 8 and Oct 5 |
| Sep 1 to 21, 2026 | Four new training requirements and wider manager review of every immigrant visa, employment cases included | State's filing of Sep 8 |
| Oct 19, 2026 | The appeals court pauses one part of the ruling: the order to look again at old refusals. The 75-country policy stays struck down | Second Circuit, No. 26-2573 |
State's own words, from its filing of October 5, 2026: the Department "instructed all posts to complete a set of required trainings related to public charge visa ineligibility and inadmissibility, including an in-person training component, before processing and adjudicating immigrant visa applications" (the declaration).
Cases refused under the 75-country pause are treated differently. State exempted their second look from the in-person training, so some posts hold those interviews while their first interviews stay paused. A lot of the "movement" people report is these second interviews.
Who goes through a consulate
After an I-140 is approved and the priority date is current, an employment green card ends one of two ways:
- Adjustment inside the US (Form I-485, decided by USCIS). About two employment green cards in three ended this way in FY2024. The consular pause doesn't touch it.
- Consular processing (the National Visa Center collects the documents, then a consulate interviews). People outside the US, and some inside it who choose to, take this route. This is the one that's paused.
How often each group went through a consulate, measured from State's FY2024 issuance tables against its Table V of visas used:
| Group | Share through a consulate, FY2024 | Main post |
|---|---|---|
| EB-3 other workers, every country | 74% | Many |
| Philippines, every employment category (mostly nurses) | 87% | Manila |
| Vietnam | 75% | Ho Chi Minh City |
| South Korea | 46% | Seoul |
| Mexico | 30% | Ciudad Juárez |
| China, EB-2 and EB-3 | 3% and 5% | Guangzhou |
| India, EB-2 and EB-3 | 3% and 15% | Mumbai |
| Every EB-2 and EB-3 green card | 36% |
So about one employment green card in three ends at a consulate. Indian and Chinese workers mostly adjust inside the US and are least exposed. Nurses and other workers abroad, through Manila above all, are the most exposed.
A current priority date isn't an interview yet. The visa bulletin still decides when your turn comes. The pause decides whether the consulate will see you when it does.
Can you switch to adjusting inside the US? Only if you're in the US in a status that allows it, and that's a question for your attorney. Two things weigh on it now. USCIS's memo of May 21 frames adjustment as "a matter of discretion and administrative grace not designed to supersede the regular consular processing of immigrant visas" (the memo). And DHS's public charge rule "applies to ... applications for adjustment of status postmarked or electronically submitted on or after September 18, 2026" (the rule).
Where each consulate stands
State publishes one table of its own for every post, the IV Scheduling Status Tool, updated about once a month. For each consulate and each kind of case it shows "the documentarily complete month and year for which NVC is scheduling most interviews in your classification". That's NVC's paperwork queue. It doesn't say whether the post is holding interviews.
On State's update of October 7, 2026, 105 of 142 posts read October 2026 for employment cases. On paper they were caught up, while most of them held no interviews at all. A few posts carry real backlogs that'll outlast the pause:
| Consulate | Employment cases NVC was scheduling | Months back |
|---|---|---|
| Manila | Completed by March 2023 | About 3½ years |
| Ciudad Juárez | Completed by July 2023 | About 3 years |
| Guangzhou | Completed by August 2023 | About 3 years |
| Seoul | Completed by November 2023 | About 3 years |
PERM Tracker keeps every update of that table, so each consulate's page shows how its month moved and how many immigrant visas it issued each month.
Which posts have restarted? State hasn't said. Applicants have reported first interviews again at a handful of European posts, among them London, Frankfurt, Paris and Warsaw. Those are reports from people waiting. State hasn't confirmed them. Graphics going round social media count more posts as open than those reports support.
NVC itself has slowed. Its document review took 5 to 21 days through June 2026. It read 69 days on October 26.
The 75-country pause, in the numbers we hold
The first pause, the one the court struck down, shows in State's own monthly tables. Employment visas issued to nationals of the 75 countries fell from 920 in February 2025 to 216 in February 2026, while visas for every other nationality rose. Employment cases were never exempt from it. PERM Tracker's visas issued abroad page draws the 75 countries month by month.
The worldwide pause can't be measured that way yet: State's newest monthly file is February 2026, months before it began.
What this can't tell you
- When your consulate restarts. No public record gives an order or an end date.
- Whether your interview has been scheduled. Only NVC's notice to you, or the consulate's, says that.
- An interview wait. State's scheduling month is a paperwork queue. It can read "caught up" at a post that's holding no interviews.
- Whether a switch to adjustment is right for you. That depends on your status, your history and the two rules above, and it's your attorney's call.
- What the courts will do next. The appeals court is still deciding the government's stay motion in CLINIC v. Rubio, and a separate case challenges the public charge rule.
Where to watch
Three pages on this site follow the pause as it moves.
- Every consulate: State's scheduling month at each update, and each post's monthly issuances.
- Policy changes: new rules, State's notices and the court rulings, as each lands.
- Your green card timeline: the planner shows no consulate date while interviews are paused, and says why.
