![]() Multiple administrations have considered making the programs more efficient without compromising security. Rashed applied under yet another route, which allows for 50 visas a year for interpreters who have a recommendation from a general.Īlmost since the beginning there have been complaints the process to come to America takes too long. That program stopped accepting applications in 2014, but applications already in the pipeline are still being processed. There are also about 100 Iraqis who applied for a more narrow special immigrant visa program for Iraqis who worked directly for or on behalf of the U.S. such as those who worked for an American nongovernmental organization. security contractor at the Iraqi Justice Ministry.Īccording to the State Department, 106,000 have applied for a program, known as direct access program, intended for people affiliated with the U.S. Mohammed Subhi Hashim al-Shafeay, his wife and four children have been in limbo for a dozen years while he tries to document his work for a U.S. Sometimes the process is slowed as applicants struggle to prove their ties to the U.S. Embassy in Baghdad, a hack of a refugee database, the COVID-19 pandemic and cuts to the refugee program under then-President Donald Trump. officials cite multiple reasons for the delays, including an attack on the U.S. An estimated 164,000 Iraqis already have found homes in America. Rashed is among thousands of Iraqis, many of whom risked their lives by working closely with Americans during the war and its aftermath, trying to enter the U.S. “You don’t have to keep me and my family suffering for, for years waiting,” said Rashed during a Skype interview from Jordan, where he lives. But six years after he applied to immigrate to the United States under a program for interpreters who helped America, he is still waiting. ![]() troops attesting to his work during some of the most dangerous days of the Iraq War. WASHINGTON (AP) - Ammar Rashed has a stack of letters from U.S. ![]()
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