US Embassy in Seoul Halts Immigrant Visa Interviews Until Aug. 31

The US Embassy in Seoul has halted immigrant visa interviews through Aug. 31, part of a global pause ordered by the State Department so consular officers can undergo additional training on screening applicants. The freeze has thrown into limbo the plans of South Koreans hoping to emigrate or reunite with family members already living in the United States.

According to the embassy, interviews originally scheduled between Aug. 25 and 31 were cancelled outright, with affected applicants told they would be given new appointment dates. Several applicants, however, say they are still waiting to hear when their rescheduled interviews will take place. Nonimmigrant visa categories, including B-1 business visas, F-1 student visas and H-1B work visas, are not affected and interviews for those are continuing as normal.

The State Department has said the pause is meant to give officers deeper training in identifying applicants who could become reliant on US public assistance programs, though it has not released a timeline or outline of what the sessions will cover.

The halt comes just days after a federal judge in Manhattan struck down a separate Trump administration measure that had blocked immigrant visa issuance for citizens of 75 countries flagged as high risk for becoming public charges. US District Judge Jeannette Vargas ruled on Aug. 21 that the policy went beyond the secretary of state's legal authority and improperly stripped consular officers of the case-by-case discretion Congress had granted them.

Word of the disruption spread quickly on Mijunmo, a Korean online forum with roughly 420,000 members dedicated to prospective emigrants to the US. Several posters described having interviews cancelled with little warning, including one who said their appointment for a K-1 fiance visa was called off just before it was due to take place. Although K-1 visas are technically a nonimmigrant category, they are processed through immigrant visa units, meaning they too have been swept up in the suspension.

Other users voiced worry that the freeze could eventually spill over into short-term travel, questioning whether upcoming business trips or vacations to the US might also be delayed. The embassy has offered no further comment beyond confirming the suspension, leaving many Korean applicants with little clarity on when normal processing will resume.