A Syrian businessman escapes from his apartment and starts climbing again. He tells the other guys that he is trying to get a visa to Pakistan

He is trying to get a visa to Pakistan. He has been scraping money together to pay a $600 agency fee, and hopes he can get to Islamabad in time — and before the Taliban close in on him.

He was informed by one of the people who were living in the same building that they were going to carry out the plan. He escaped by climbing through his apartment window, he says. NPR’s first name is used for security reasons.

“I know other people — just business owners — who got evacuated, but … I am still waiting. I can’t understand why, I don’t understand this disconnected process,” he says. “I’m so frustrated and so disappointed. I never thought that something like that could happen.”

The U.S. Embassy in Afghanistan is closing and there’s no more resettling Afghans than in Pakistan, says a female student in Malaysia

Since the Taliban returned to power last year, an estimated 88,500 Afghans have been relocated to the U.S. That number represents a combination of different types of visas.

The SIV application for Sanaullah was completed three months ago, and all the documents were accepted. He plans to get a visa interview next month at the U.S. Embassy in Islamabad. The U.S. closed its embassy in Afghanistan last year and so visa interviews take place in Pakistan.

It is not just former military interpreters like Sanaullah who are at risk — activists, journalists, former employees of the previous government and armed forces are all subject to being jailed, beaten and disappeared.

One female Afghan student, who fears for her safety, is going to study architecture at a university in Malaysia, even though she does not want NPR to use her name.

She suffered another blow in September. She was told her passport would need to be valid for more than 18 months in order to get a study visa, despite it being valid for another 13 months.

120 students were about to board a flight at the airport in August. But only the male students were allowed to travel. Taliban authorities held back 60 female students and instructed them to go home.

The 19-year-old student who was denied boarding because of her history of activism and fear of her scholarship being revoked is not currently studying at the school.

The Taliban took our tickets and our passports when we went to the airport. and they said, ‘You don’t have a male guardian. “Do you know where you are going?” she asks.

The U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan put the system under pressure and made it hard to catch up.

Up until now, Afghans could be granted humanitarian parole at the port of entry by Homeland Security. Afghan nationals who’ve been resettling in the US over the past year are very likely to have entered this way. That will no longer be permissible.

Another spokesperson for the State Department tells NPR that staff has been added to U.S. embassies in Qatar, Pakistan and the United Arab Emirates. But the visa pipelines for Afghans remain clogged.

The U.S. government’s efforts to resettle Afghan nationals is ending and being replaced. “Operation Allies Welcome has been a historic whole-of-society effort to resettle our Afghan allies, in communities across our country. This Operation is made possible by partnerships across numerous federal agencies; state and local governments; non-profit organizations, including faith-based and veterans’ groups; the private sector; and local communities,” a Department of Homeland Security spokesperson said in a statement responding to NPR’s questions about what this change might mean for Afghans who are in the pipeline.

Meanwhile, funding for the Afghan Adjustment Act, a bill intended to cut some of the red tape out of the immigration process and ease the way to permanent residency for Afghan evacuees who are already in the U.S., was cut out of the government spending bill that passed on Friday. However, the bill did include $3 billion in aid for Afghan resettlement efforts.

Source: https://www.npr.org/2022/10/03/1121053865/afghanistan-refugees-visas

Why the American Embassy in Afghanistan isn’t going to close: Sensitivity to the Security and Security of the First Respondents

I try to figure out how to give the worst news in the world. “That there are a lot of applicants ahead of you.” And good luck waiting through years and years of bureaucratic backlog that the American government doesn’t seem interested in fixing.”

He’s called on the White House to cut red tape, and if the U.S. isn’t going to open the embassy in Kabul, at least allow consular interviews to happen online.

Lindsey Graham of South Carolina is one of the Republican Senators who are pushing the Afghan Adjustment Act. Chuck Grassley of Iowa refused to support it due to the security concerns of the newly arrived Afghans.

More than two dozen former chiefs of the US military sent a letter to US congressional leaders Saturday urging them to act immediately to save Afghan allies who are currently at risk.

CNN is first to report that retired generals and admirals are asking Congress to include the Afghan Adjustment Act in the omnibus spending bill.

The letter, organized by #AfghanEvac, argues that the legislation is not only “a moral imperative,” it furthers “the national security interests of the United States.”

Other signatories served as commanders in Afghanistan such as Army Gens. Stan McChrystal, David McKiernan, John “Mick” Nicholson Jr. and David Rodriguez.