Afghan residents who labored with the US are nonetheless ready in third-party nations for his or her promised American visas eight months after leaving Afghanistan.
“We're actively processing visa purposes for Afghans searching for to come back to the US, together with by helping Afghans who qualify for SIVs as a result of they have been employed by or on behalf of the US authorities or by the Worldwide Safety Help Power or its successor,” a State Division spokesperson advised Fox Information Digital.
“After taking workplace, we labored to cut back the processing time for SIV eligible Afghans, whereas maintaining in place our sturdy safety and medical screening processes,” the spokesperson added.
The Particular Immigrant Visa (SIV) program for Afghan residents gives a path for former staff or contractors who labored with the State Division or different American entities. Many of those candidates stay in pending standing because the State Division continues to overview their eligibility, however the wait time has began to put on away at them and their households.
“After collaborating with the US authorities evacuation airlift, I got here to know of many unimaginable Afghan allies who weren't fortunate sufficient to get out of Afghanistan earlier than the operation concluded,” Amed Khan, a human rights advocate and philanthropist, advised Fox Information Digital. “I took it upon myself to evacuate and take care of as many of those heroes as I may with a deal with at-risk girls leaders and others who served the US mission in Afghanistan.“
“We made a degree of evacuating individuals who had paperwork to get on the US army evacuation flights however couldn't make it into the airport as a result of total chaos,” he defined. “The individuals we're taking care of in transit nations like Greece have long-standing superior SIV and P1/P2 purposes. We have been lucky sufficient to have the ability to rescue these individuals from demise by the hands of the Taliban, however now they danger languishing for years except the US authorities makes a concerted effort to course of their instances as rapidly as attainable.”
Faridoon Hazeen, one such SIV candidate, has been in Greece for the reason that finish of November 2021 awaiting progress on his software.
“The airline that took us out of Kabul, out to Georgia, it belonged to the federal government of Afghanistan,” Hazeen stated of his household’s Nov. 22 journey. “The previous authorities of Afghanistan known as that Afghan airways. So we have been taken to Georgia … then we have been taken to the Sala Nikita, one of many provinces of Greece, by Aegean flight, which belonged to the federal government of Greece and a Greek authorities on the identical date.”
Hazeen assisted the US with its Corrections System Assist Program, which the State Division established to assist the Afghan authorities overhaul its jail system to satisfy worldwide requirements, since 2012.
Following his household’s evacuation from Afghanistan in November 2021, he remained in limbo till simply final week when he lastly heard that he'll now have his interview. He despatched quite a few emails earlier than lastly listening to again.
His story is much from distinctive: Faridoon counted roughly 30 individuals in Greece with him who're equally ready for his or her visas, in some instances solely getting clearance to journey to Canada within the meantime.
Latifa, who labored with American firms to develop alternatives for ladies in Afghanistan, final week realized that her household has obtained approval to journey to Canada, she advised Fox Information Digital. She obtained approval for her visa previous to leaving Afghanistan, however the embassy closed earlier than she may finalize the method.
She traveled to Greece, the place she needed to begin the method over once more and has waited for months to achieve America. The approval for journey to Canada is a welcome change, however she finds it an uncomfortable one.
“The rule adjustments on me, on my children that I've to go now to the very new system of Canada that I'm not a lot acquainted with them, I by no means went there,” she stated. “I have no idea concerning the training system … the system may be very totally different from the US, and I used to be a lot acquainted with the American system by means of the work for my profession.”
“So that is the massive concern match once more with the brand new location,” she continued, noting that she has labored with a Canadian group so has some ties to the nation. “I used to be fortunate to need to work with a Canadian group in Afghanistan, however different persons are right here.”
Latifa stated it appears to take six months for the instances to even begin, saying that the embassies may “lack individuals.”
“There are numerous individuals as a result of we're a group of Afghans that immigrated,” she defined. “Amongst them are 4 or 5 households which have financial savings someplace and medical house. Some are on different instances, however there isn't a very clear response to them as nicely as a result of nobody is aware of.”
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