In late May, the Biden administration filed a motion seeking relief from a court-ordered plan that would bring the special immigrant visa program closer to the nine-month turnaround time promised to Afghan and Iraqi applicants who worked alongside U.S. personnel. Afghan SIV applicants already manage a worsening hunger crisis and increasingly difficult economic conditions while trying to evade the ruling Taliban. The average 685-day SIV processing time is intolerable.
There are 78,000 SIV applicants known to be left in Afghanistan and countless others who applied after the U.S. withdrawal. Many of the 250 field service representatives subcontracted by L3Harris are currently experiencing complications achieving chief of mission approval, the first hurdle of the SIV program. A number of applicants submitted generic recommendation letters provided by L3Harris, believing these fulfilled the SIV program’s letter of recommendation requirement. Between March and May 2022, more than 15 have been denied chief of mission approval because they had not acquired letters of recommendation from direct supervisors in compliance with SIV guidelines.
SIV applicants have 120 days to appeal a denial. According to a Department of State spokesperson, appeals are “considered submitted on the date that an applicant emails their appeal,” effectively sending them to the end of a first-come, first-served processing queue of unknown length. The Department of State has not responded to multiple requests to provide the number of SIV applications it has received since the United States withdrew from Afghanistan.
One subcontractor, a member of the persecuted Hazara minority, has already received a denial. He says the Taliban have called for his arrest. With his biometric information in systems the Taliban possess, he lives in fear and poverty while seeking an appeal. L3Harris says it is “proactively working” to ensure “the U.S. government has what it needs to process applications as urgently as possible.”
Also awaiting almost certain denial is Nabiullah, whose name has been changed to protect his identity. Nabiullah was a linguist employed by WorldWide Language Resources between 2004 and 2007. When he first applied to the SIV program in 2012, he says the company’s Afghan country director gave him a human resources letter on the company’s letterhead. Nabiullah’s application was denied.
In November 2021, Nabiullah asked the company for an updated human resources letter for a new application. On examining his previous letter, the human resources director questioned its veracity. She wrote a new letter that not only leaves out vital details but destroys Nabiullah’s credibility by outlining each irregularity in his former letter. WorldWide Language Resources did not respond to inquiries about Nabiullah’s human resources letters. Unable to work and wondering when the Taliban will learn he worked for the U.S., Nabiullah says life in his country is the “worst hell.”
Countless SIV hopefuls live in desperation but lack documentation of their faithful and valuable service to the U.S. In just three months, I have emailed literally dozens of American companies and personnel to relay pleas for human resources data and letters of recommendation. I have received only two responses. One allowed a valuable employee in perilous circumstances to finally submit his SIV application. The other response proved exceedingly disappointing.
Shafiullah, whose name has been changed to protect his identity, was employed by International Management Services, Inc. as a combat interpreter and cultural adviser for the U.S. Army between 2006 and 2011. The company was defunct when Shafiullah applied for an SIV in 2013. Without human resources verification, his application was denied. Shafiullah submitted a second SIV application in 2014. In February 2022, he was denied for lacking proof of qualifying employment. I contacted four military personnel who previously supervised Shafiullah. One veteran responded and said he remembered Shafiullah but was uncomfortable providing a letter of recommendation without verifying his identity. I sent him Shafiullah’s contact information to facilitate a positive identification. He neither responded to my email nor reached out to Shafiullah. Now, Shafiullah’s appeal period has passed. He still hopes to contact a supervisor before the Afghan SIV program ends in late 2023.
Tens of thousands of Afghans awaiting an SIV face increasingly dire circumstances. The court, and the country, should demand the Biden administration provide speedier assistance to those who continue to experience great risk for their support of the U.S. mission in Afghanistan.
Beth Bailey (@BWBailey85) is a freelance writer from the Detroit area.
