DOS Terminates "20-Day Hold"
Posted Nov 01, 2002

The U.S. Department of State (DOS) has eliminated the 20-day hold procedure in place for certain nonimmigrant visa applications. This hold was a special review for applicants from a specific list of countries. While the list has never been officially released by DOS, several unofficial lists have been published by various news sources. The hold was an interim procedure, now eliminated, for all pending cases as well as future applications. This matter was covered in the November 30, 2001 MurthyBulletin article, Arab and Muslim Men Wait Longer for Visas, available on MurthyDotCom. As explained here, various checks are still in place, but the cases are no longer subject to uniform, automatic 20-day delays.
 
This change in no way eliminates the other enhanced, post-9/11 security measures. All other "special clearance procedures," beyond the normal DOS computer name check system, known as CLASS, remain in place. There are many factors that trigger the "special clearance procedures." Included in these factors are incidents of persons whose names result in a "hit" on the CLASS name check and persons a consular officer has reason to believe may be ineligible under security grounds. There are special restrictions related to illegal technology transfer that are required if the consular officer believes the individual's proposed activities in the U.S. would involve one of the "sensitive technologies" on the Technology Alert List.
 
The decision to eliminate the 20-day hold at this time is that it was to be an interim measure, instituted as a reaction to the events of September 11, 2001. At this time, the DOS states that the measure is no longer needed, owing to enhanced data-sharing between the various government agencies and additional security clearance procedures now in place.