The US Immigrant Visa Pause Is Over: What Pakistani Families Should Do With the Restart

By the Kimi Travels Team | Updated October 2026

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For seven months of 2026, Pakistani families with American immigration files lived in a strange suspension. On 14 January 2026 the US State Department announced it would suspend immigrant visa processing for nationals of 75 countries, Pakistan included, effective 21 January, pending a review of vetting and public-charge rules. On 22 August 2026 a US federal judge struck the policy down; by 1 September 2026 the United States formally ended the pause. Processing has resumed — but a seven-month freeze across 75 countries does not unwind quietly. This guide explains what the restart actually means for the families caught in it, and what to do now. Pehle visa, phir ticket — the visa first, the ticket after, in that order and no other.

What Actually Happened, In Order

The timeline matters because documents and deadlines attach to it. The January announcement suspended immigrant visa issuance for 75 nationalities — Afghanistan, Iran and others alongside Pakistan — while the administration reviewed how it assessed public-assistance dependence and vetting standards. Cases already queued simply stopped moving. In August, a federal court ruled against the suspension, and by early September the State Department confirmed the pause was lifted following the court order. Families should read official status at travel.state.gov and the US embassy Islamabad channels rather than headlines, because implementation timing at individual embassies follows the ruling, not the press release.

What Was Paused and What Was Never Paused

The suspension covered immigrant visas — family-based green-card cases, employment-based permanent residency, and diversity-program selectees — the categories where a Pakistani family member is relocating to the United States permanently. It did not suspend nonimmigrant categories: B1/B2 visitor visas, student and exchange visas, and petition-based work visas continued processing through the same months, on their own timetables. Mixing the two up causes real mistakes — families who assumed everything was frozen let valid B1/B2 renewal windows drift, a habit our US visa renewal guide exists to correct. The diversity lottery has its own, separate turbulence — the DV program was paused in December 2025 for its own vetting review, and Pakistan's natives are excluded regardless — untangled fully in our DV-2028 guide.

The Backlog Reality After a 75-Country Freeze

Resumption does not mean speed. Seven months of frozen cases across dozens of nationalities now re-enter interview queues simultaneously, and embassy appointment capacity — physical, consular, fixed — does not expand because a court ordered a restart. Pakistani families should expect longer interview wait times before the queue normalises, not shorter ones, and should treat every communication from the National Visa Center or the embassy as time-sensitive precisely because thousands of other files are receiving theirs the same week. The practical posture is patience with paperwork: respond to document requests within days, not weeks, because in a backlog, slow responses compound.

Documents to Have Ready Now

The pause months were not wasted for families who used them. The restart rewards files that are complete the day they are asked for something:

• Police certificates — current for every applicant over 16, from Pakistan and every country of long residence
• Medical examination — scheduled only with the embassy's panel physicians, and timed close to interview, not months early
• Financial sponsorship documents — tax transcripts and employment evidence supporting the affidavit of support, assembled and recent
• Civil documents and certified translations — birth, marriage and nikah records aligned with the petition data
• Fee receipts and confirmation pages — printed, filed and retrievable in seconds
• The new health attestation, from 3 November 2026 — every US-bound passenger now files a CDC travel-history attestation at check-in, so families flying in for interviews or arrivals should arrive knowing the rule; our US health attestation guide covers who it stops and how

The Scams a Restart Breeds

Every immigration disruption has a fee-collecting shadow, and this one is no exception. Expect pitches claiming expedited restart processing for a fee, guaranteed interview slots, or inside access to reopened queues — none of which exist. The only payment channels are the official ones, and the only appointment system is the official one; anything routed through an agent is a donation. The same discipline our site applies to Umrah files applies double here: official portals, official fees, zero shortcuts. When the visa is finally issued, the travel layer — booking flights that survive date changes, the routing realities our Pakistan-to-America flight routes guide covers — is the easy part, and it comes last.

Where Kimi Travels Fits In

Kimi Travels does not process immigration cases, and any agency claiming it can is one to walk away from. What we do is the travel layer around the file: flexible-ticket planning that survives interview-date shifts, document-run logistics, and the family's accompanying travel booked only when the visa is in hand. For families from Sialkot and across Pakistan, the sequence never changes: the embassy decides, then we fly you — never the reverse.

Frequently Asked Questions

Is the US immigrant visa pause still in effect?
No — a federal court struck down the policy in August 2026 and the United States confirmed the pause ended in early September 2026.

Was my B1/B2 visitor visa affected by the pause?
No — the suspension covered immigrant categories only; visitor, student and work visas processed on their normal tracks.

Will interviews be faster now that processing resumed?
Likely slower at first — months of frozen cases across 75 countries are re-entering queues against fixed embassy capacity.

Is the DV lottery open again after the ruling?
No — the diversity program's own pause, ordered in December 2025, is a separate matter, and Pakistani natives remain excluded from it.

Can an agent speed up my restarted case?
No legitimate channel exists for paying for speed; official portals and fee systems are the only valid routes.

Immigration file moving again? Kimi Travels handles the travel layer — flexible flights and family logistics — once the visa is issued. Plan Travel After My Visa