Q: When will Immigrant Visa Services resume?

A: The US Embassy is currently processing only mission-critical immigrant visa applications. These cases include those where an applicant is close to ageing out of an immigration benefit, and where lawful permanent residents who have lost their green card need a Boarding Foil to return to the United States.

We will also start processing soon IR1, IR2, CR1, and CR2 visa applications for spouses and children of US citizens as mission-critical cases.

If your case is in one of the four categories mentioned above, and you have been waiting on a rescheduled interview, you will hear from the immigrant visa unit shortly with further information.

As we resume more in-person interviews to address these mission-critical cases, the consular section has enacted plans for our physical space that will allow our staff and applicants a safe experience. While we are only addressing mission-critical cases currently, the immigrant visa unit is also developing plans to process other cases that have been affected by the current health emergency as soon as we are able to do so.

We continue to review case files in support of ongoing immigrant visa applications as well and pre-screen all possible cases to ensure all documents needed for the visa interview are available and up to date. If we have requested documents for your case, please follow the instructions provided.

If you are an immigrant visa applicant who is being processed under the Modernized Immigrant Visa (MIV) system, please continue to monitor your online CEAC application even if your interview has not yet been scheduled/rescheduled. Sending in requested documents now will help us process your case more quickly once we are able to resume routine visa operations.

While we still do not know when the consular section will be able to resume providing routine visa services, we will post on our website ( www.jm.usembassy.gov) any change to our operating status.

All decisions regarding how and when we will resume services will be made based on guidance from the Department of State and the situation in Jamaica. We are doing everything we can to keep our staff and the public safe while still processing the most critical cases. Please know that your visa case is important to us and we look forward to processing it as soon as we are able.

You can find more information on our website, www.jm.usembassy.gov or by visiting www.travel.state.gov . Keep on top of embassy news on our Facebook page, www.facebook.com/USEmbassyJamaica/ and by following @USEmbassyJA on Twitter . We also answer general visa questions on our Facebook and Twitter pages.