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.