Nigerians who have completed their paperwork, paid the fees, and are waiting for an immigrant visa interview are still waiting, because of overlapping policy decisions that were never about their individual case.

In January, the State Department suspended immigrant visa issuance for nationals of 75 countries, Nigeria among them, citing concerns that applicants were likely to become a “public charge”. US District Judge Jeannette Vargas ruled on August 21 that the policy exceeded the Secretary of State’s legal authority, because it denied consular officers the individualised assessment that US immigration law requires. The ruling removed the Nigeria-specific barrier. Days later, however, the State Department paused immigrant visa appointment scheduling worldwide while consular officers underwent new training on applicant screening and public-charge rules. The two policies aren’t the same thing, one was a country-specific suspension, the other a global scheduling pause, but for a Nigerian applicant waiting on an interview date, they’ve had a similar practical effect: delay, with no individual review attached to it.

For someone who has already submitted petitions, completed medical exams, and paid the fees, none of this back-and-forth is something they had any say in. The US issued roughly 8,530 immigrant visas to Nigerians in fiscal year 2024, and more than 90 percent of those fell in the immediate-relative or family-preference categories, meaning most were people trying to join a parent, spouse, or child already in the US. Each interruption adds uncertainty to a process that can already take months or years, for people who did everything asked of them and still can’t get an interview date.

The court that struck down the January policy made a point worth sitting with. It ruled that consular officers, not a blanket nationality-based order, are supposed to be the ones deciding whether an individual applicant qualifies. The problem for applicants waiting on interviews right now is that the worldwide pause delays the stage at which a consular officer can actually make that individual assessment. Whether a family in Lagos gets to reunite with a relative in Houston still depends on one person’s case, eventually. It just isn’t being looked at yet.