AI Generated Image (not actual State Department case files)
The Afghan SIV backlog grew sharply in early 2026, with 66,126 principal applicants waiting for Chief of Mission review on March 31, according to the latest quarterly report the State Department and the Department of Homeland Security sent Congress on the Special Immigrant Visa program. That line, for a single step in a long multi-step process, grew by about 15,000 people in three months, even as the government’s reported total processing time fell to 931 days.
The report covers January 1 through March 31, 2026, so it is a look backward. It still matters now. The administration has begun deporting Afghans through Pakistan, a federal judge in New York paused some of those removals this week, and Temporary Protected Status for Afghanistan ended in July 2025. For Afghans who worked for or on behalf of the U.S. government, the SIV program is one of the few lawful routes left, and the new figures show how narrow it has become.
Two quarters of the Afghan SIV backlog, side by side
| Measure | Q1 FY2026 (Oct.–Dec. 2025) | Q2 FY2026 (Jan.–Mar. 2026) |
|---|---|---|
| Principals pending Chief of Mission review (end of quarter) | 51,122 | 66,126 |
| Chief of Mission decisions in quarter | 4,418 | 2,301 |
| Average Chief of Mission processing time | 597 days | 506 days |
| New Chief of Mission applications received | 8,857 | 15,702 |
| Principals found unqualified or approval revoked | 2,855 | 2,097 |
| Total government processing time | 1,191 days | 931 days |
| Remaining SIV numbers for principals (end of quarter) | 5,970 | 5,978 |
Chief of Mission approval is the embassy’s finding that an applicant’s qualifying employment and service record meet the program’s requirements. Only after that approval does the case move to the USCIS petition, the interview and the visa itself. The Afghan Allies Protection Act of 2009 directs agencies to finish their part of the process within nine months, with room for added security vetting. At 931 days, the reported total is roughly three and a half times that benchmark, based on the report’s own figure.
A pause, a filing deadline and a faster average
Two events explain most of the jump. The State Department paused Chief of Mission processing in late November 2025 after an Afghan national attacked two National Guard members in Washington, D.C., killing one, and it resumed only “limited” processing in late January 2026, the report says. Decisions fell by nearly half. At the same time, applications nearly doubled, which the report ties to the December 31, 2025 deadline to apply for Chief of Mission approval.
The shorter averages need careful reading. Processing times measure only cases that were completed, so they can fall while the queue grows. With half as many decisions made, the practical effect is that a smaller, possibly older set of files moved through while the newest filings piled up behind them. The 260-day drop in total processing time, a calculation from the two reports, says little about how long someone who applied in December 2025 should expect to wait.
Rejections are also part of the picture. In the January to March quarter, 2,097 principal applicants were found unqualified or had a prior approval revoked. The report does not say how many of those were revocations, or how that figure overlaps with the quarter’s 2,301 Chief of Mission decisions. It also notes that relocation flights from Kabul to third-country processing sites have been paused since January 26, 2025, which leaves many applicants still inside Afghanistan with no clear way to reach an interview.
The visa numbers will not stretch
The program’s cumulative count of visa numbers used slipped from 44,530 to 44,522 over the quarter, which the report attributes in part to an April 2026 audit that recaptured a small number of visas. That left 5,978 numbers for principal applicants. By comparison, 15,522 principals had already cleared earlier steps and were waiting for an interview to be scheduled on March 31, about 2.6 times the remaining supply, based on the report’s figures.
That gap is the central policy question. Even if the State Department cleared the Chief of Mission queue tomorrow, most approved applicants could not receive a visa without new numbers from Congress, which last added 12,000 in March 2024. The program has historically drawn support from both parties, largely through veterans’ groups, but bills to expand it or to give evacuated Afghans a direct path to permanent residence have repeatedly stalled. Whether the incoming Democratic Congress takes up the issue in January 2027 will decide whether the backlog is a delay or a dead end for many applicants. The administration, for its part, says in the report that its priority “remains national security.”
The broader trend is consistent with what State Department data show across categories: visa issuance has fallen sharply in fiscal 2026, and Afghanistan is among the countries that lost protection in the administration’s wave of TPS terminations. The next quarterly report, covering April through June 2026, will show whether the resumed processing began to cut into the queue or simply kept pace with it.
This article is for general information and is not legal advice.
Sources
- State Department and DHS, Report to Congress on the Afghan SIV Program, Q2 FY2026 (Jan. 1–Mar. 31, 2026)
- State Department and DHS, Report to Congress on the Afghan SIV Program, Q1 FY2026 (Oct. 1–Dec. 31, 2025)
- DHS, Termination of the Designation of Afghanistan for Temporary Protected Status, 90 FR 20309 (May 13, 2025)
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