The U.S. Department of State (DOS) halted all worldwide U.S. immigrant visa appointments for consular processing to train officers in public charge assessments and screening procedures.
The pause specifically affects immigrant visa interviews, which are necessary for individuals seeking permanent residency in the United States. This includes family- and employment-based visa petitioners such as those applying for the EB-5 visa. Non-immigrant visas, including tourist and H-1B work visas, are not impacted by this temporary pause.
DOS has not provided a timeline for when normal processing will resume. As a result, EB-5 investors may experience significant delays in obtaining permanent residency.
EB-5 industry reacts to the suspension
This halt is expected to delay interviews and suspend the review of petition documents for principal EB-5 investors and their derivative family members who apply through U.S. consulates and embassies in their home countries. Furthermore, I-526 petitions that have already been approved cannot proceed to visa issuance without these interviews.
“This will cause an increased backlog of EB-5 investors waiting to obtain their EB-5 visas, and later their conditional green cards, who already have approved I-526 petitions,” said Farah Abbas of Abbas Law. “This also means that the only visa numbers that will be used during this suspension are for those EB-5 investors that are adjusting status in the United States.”
Abbas added that EB-5 investors at other stages of processing Form I-526 or I-829, or adjusting status in the U.S. (Form I-485), should continue to be able to file and be processed.
“This visa pause is nonsensical and outrageous,” said Tammy Fox-Isicoff of Rifkin & Fox-Isicoff P.A. “Public charge has always been a ground of inadmissibility. This is not anything new that should cause consulates to stop all processing.”
Fox Isicoff added that public charge issues rarely arise in employment-based petitions, including EB-5 and the Gold Card. “These people are coming to either take employment or salaried positions, or because they donated or invested substantial sums of money in the U.S. This is another effort by a vindictive administration to stop legal immigration.”
Training consular officers is a legitimate activity, but it does not, by itself, explain why every immigrant-visa interview was suspended, according to Minwon Cho of Cho Law.
According to State Department guidelines, all nonexempt applicants must undergo a customized public-charge assessment based on current circumstances, including employment-based applicants who are exempt from filing Form I-864.
“EB-5 cases are a particularly weak fit for a blanket pause: investors have committed substantial capital, currently at least $800,000, to U.S. enterprises required to create or preserve at least ten full-time jobs for qualifying U.S. workers,” Cho said. “After petition approval, categorical rescheduling merely adds delay without regard to the investor’s individualized public-charge risk.”
The effects of this measure are already being felt.
“We have received reports that immigrant visa interviews at the U.S. Consulate in Guangzhou, China, scheduled before September 4 have been canceled,” said Ying Lu of the Law Office of Lu & Associates.
Additionally, EB-5 projects anticipating timely EB-5 visa issuances may face delays in capital deployment and eligibility for conditional green cards. There may also be delays in family reunification, as spouses and children listed as dependents in EB-5 petitions are similarly affected.
“The current pause has understandably created great uncertainty and anxiety for many individuals and families across the globe,” said Gary Merson, president of EB-5 regional centers operator American Lending Center Holdings (ALC), in an emailed statement to EB5investors.com. “This includes a lot of EB-5 investors and their families.”
Merson also urged U.S. policymakers to consider the unique role EB-5 investors play in the U.S. immigration system and economy when reviewing their visa policies.
“These individuals and families make significant, long-term commitments to the United States by investing substantial capital in U.S. businesses and projects, supporting American job creation, and contributing to economic development in communities across the country,” said Merson, who is also former Chief of Staff at the Office of the Citizenship and Immigration Services Ombudsman and Chief Counsel (Minority) for the House Immigration Subcommittee.
Meanwhile, Christopher Mason, ALC’s Chief Communications Officer, noted, “As the policy may change quickly, including as a result of litigation, anyone with a previously scheduled appointment for next week or thereafter should remain prepared to proceed in the event the Administration issues new guidance.”
Mason, who also served as the former chief economist for the Immigrant Investor Program Office (IPO) at the United States Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS), noted that EB-5 investors should work with their counsel to prepare for any future changes to the process.
The halt does not refuse visas but comes at a time of increased scrutiny
DOS communicated the worldwide temporary pause to affected applicants directly via email and indirectly through media reports, which also state that embassies and consulates are informing applicants about this update.
A department spokesperson said this suspension is solely for rescheduling due to training and does not automatically deny visas.
This global pause coincides with increased scrutiny under the latest public charge rule, which assesses whether foreign nationals are likely to become reliant on U.S. government benefits.
The announcement also follows a federal judge’s decision to strike down a January policy that suspended visas for 75 countries.
“The new suspension appears to be an administrative workaround or policy response after a federal judge, on August 21, 2026, struck down the earlier 75-country immigrant visa freeze as exceeding the Secretary of State’s authority and conflicting with the INA. Days later, the State Department imposed a broader global pause, citing new public-charge training and guidance,” Lu said.
Unlike that previous policy, the current pause focuses on training and officer preparation rather than targeting specific nationalities.
“The key question is whether this remains temporary or becomes a prolonged delay,” Lu concluded. “When interviews resume, I do not expect the new public-charge training to create significant issues for most EB-5 investors, given their generally substantial financial resources and the relatively low public-charge risk in this category.
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