Expedited Immigrant Visa Approval for Palestinian National at U.S. Embassy in Cairo

We recently received an immigrant visa approval for a Palestinian national petitioned by her U.S. citizen son at the U.S. Embassy in Cairo.

U.S. Embassies and Consulates have discretion to accept and adjudicate I-130 immediate relative petitions under exceptional circumstances pursuant to 9 FAM 504.2-4(B). Generally, the petitioner and the beneficiary must both be physically present in the Consular jurisdiction in order to do so & the petitioner must file in person; however, the petitioner does not need to be a resident of the jurisdiction. In this case, the beneficiary had evacuated from Gaza to Cairo, and her U.S. citizen son came to Cairo from the USA for purposes of this expedited filing. After the acceptance of the I-130, the Consulate requests additional supporting documents for the immigrant visa interview, including medical exam, and provides a case number to complete the DS-260 immigrant visa application online. This is done directly with the Consulate and not with the National Visa Center (NVC). The beneficiary then must attend an immigrant visa interview, but the petitioner need not be present for this interview. In this case, the process took approximately six weeks.

U.S Embassies and Consulates in both Cairo and Beirut are currently expediting processing of immediate relative petitions (parents, minor children, and spouses of U.S. citizens) in response to the conflict. For individuals already in the United States, some immigration benefits in response to the conflict have been put into effect for Palestinian (Deferred Enforced Departure) and Lebanese nationals (Temporary Protected Status, Deferred Enforced Departure, Work Authorization for F-1 Students).