12,000 Afghans get special visas under Biden-Congress deal

KABUL (Pajhwok): The White House and congressional leaders have agreed to grant 12,000 special immigrant visas for Afghan nationals.

The SIV program, which was created in 2009 to give Afghans who served as interpreters for the US military a path to escape threats to their lives, has about 7,000 visas remaining of the 38,500 Congress has previously approved over the years.

“The White House and Congressional leaders have agreed to grant 12,000 Special Immigrant Visas for Afghan nationals who assisted the United States,” McCaul announced during a hearing, adding it would be in the State Department’s foreign operations funding bill.

With the State Department issuing about 1,000 visas per month, the program was on track to run out as soon as August if lawmakers did not agree to approve more.

But tens of thousands of Afghan allies are still waiting for visas. As of the State Department’s most recent quarterly report on the program in September, more than 67,000 completed SIV applications were awaiting what’s known as chief of mission approval and another nearly 11,000 Afghans were awaiting their visa interviews after receiving that approval.

News that the program is getting an infusion of visas comes amid revived scrutiny of the 2021 withdrawal following Tuesday’s House Foreign Affairs Committee hearing.

kk/ma

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