The United States State Department reports that the National Visa Center (NVC) numbers show a 4% decrease in the green card application backlog when comparing January 2024 to December 2023. While a seemingly small improvement, the number of green card applicants waiting to be scheduled for interviews dropped from about 304,000 to about 292,000. Interviews scheduled increased from 36,619 in November 2023 to 45,765 in December 2023. The encouraging numbers are per the NVC monthly report.
The NVC prepares applications after collecting the appropriate documentation and acts as a warehouse holding the applications until advised that U.S. embassies and/or consulates have opened up interview slots. The NVC then sends documented and completed applications to various embassies/consulates for interview scheduling. As more embassies are reopening after COVID and other previous closing or downsizing reasons, the NVC can distribute more completed applications. This process, along with internal attempts at streamlining processes, has helped to improve the numbers.
