AfghanEvac Weekly Update | May 18, 2026
Zero SIV visas issued this year, an Ebola emergency in the country picked to receive Afghan allies, and a scammer the team can no longer ignore.
Five months in, the State Department has now confirmed in writing what the data has been telling us all year. Zero Afghan SIVs have been issued in 2026. The most rigorously vetted legal immigration pathway in modern U.S. history has been wound down without a vote, without a hearing, and without honor.
Meanwhile, the country the administration was prepared to send 1,100 vetted Afghan allies to is now under a WHO public health emergency for Ebola, and a familiar scammer is back, telling Afghan families to skip lawyers and trust him instead.
Here is where things stand and what to do about it.
Action This Week
Read the new State Department SIV report and share our statement. The numbers tell the story. Review the report at go.afghanevac.org/2026-dos-update-siv. Our statement is here.
Read and share this story on the Ebola outbreak in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. This is the country to which the administration was, until last week, planning to send 1,100 vetted Afghan allies. WHO declared a public health emergency of international concern on Sunday. bbc.com/news/articles/c2l2p0wwzzdo
Send us a 60-second video. Organizations and individuals welcome. Please do not put yourself at risk. We will post videos to amplify the work happening across this ecosystem. Send to share-my-video@afghanevac.org letting us know we have your permission to post. Please include your name, organization, and location.
The State Department Confirms What We Have Been Saying for Months
On Wednesday, May 13, the State Department released a report meant to update Congress on the Afghan Special Immigrant Visa program. The headline numbers are unambiguous.
Scroll through yesterday’s Instagram update to learn more and keep reading below.
Zero SIVs have been issued to Afghan applicants since January 1, 2026.
Of the 50,500 principal applicant visas Congress authorized, 5,970 remain (like we said back in January, before official numbers were released).
The program is effectively closed. Since the application deadline came and went on December 31, 2025, no new Chief of Mission applications will be created, and the administration has paired the legal wind-down with a presidential proclamation that suspends visa issuance to Afghan nationals altogether. The Department says it is still reviewing applications and conducting interviews. It is not issuing visas. This is the policy outcome we have been documenting all year. A federal court ordered the government to keep adjudicating cases in February. The administration has complied with the letter of that order while ensuring nothing the adjudications produce can be acted on. Applicants are being told to show up for interviews, in most cases across borders and at significant cost, without being informed that under current policy their applications will be denied and they’ll have to start over when and if the travel ban is lifted. That is not a process. It is a trap.
The SIV report is significant because it is the program with the longest bipartisan record, an incredibly rigorous vetting framework, and the clearest statutory promise. The administration has chosen to let it close.
To be clear about what this report covers, this is the Special Immigrant Visa program for Afghans who served the United States during the war. It is not the U.S. Refugee Admissions Program (P1 and P2). It is not family reunification. It is not asylum. Each of those tracks has its own status and its own active litigation, and we have a section on each below.
Our statement is on our website and all over our social media.
Case Processing Updates by Pathway
The SIV report is the headline this week, but the rest of the pipeline matters and continues to deteriorate. Here is where each pathway stands.
SIV. Adjudications continue under the February 6, 2026 court order in Afghan and Iraqi Allies v. Rubio. Visa issuance does not. The new report confirms zero issuances since January 1. Chief of Mission averages remain over 669 days. Approximately 178,000 Afghan SIV applicants have already received COM approval and are stranded somewhere in the pipeline.
USRAP P1 and P2. The refugee admissions program remains suspended outside the narrow set of cases ordered restored under Pacito v. Trump. The Ninth Circuit upheld most of the suspension in March. Travel for the small group with imminent flights at the time of the freeze has resumed in small numbers, but the program is not running for the broader Afghan caseload. We hope to see Afghans included in the reportedly forthcoming “emergency” Presidential Determination update.
Family reunification. Families separated for years are still separated across all categories, with no relief expected in the near future.
Here is the full Pathways section and the Dorcas explainer that follows it, ready to drop in.
Case Processing Updates by Pathway
The SIV report is the headline this week, but the rest of the pipeline matters and continues to deteriorate. Here is where each pathway stands.
SIV. Adjudications continue under the February 6, 2026 court order in Afghan and Iraqi Allies v. Rubio. Visa issuance does not. The new report confirms zero issuances since January 1. Chief of Mission averages remain over 669 days. Approximately 178,000 Afghan SIV applicants have already received COM approval and are stranded somewhere in the pipeline.
USRAP P1 and P2. The refugee admissions program remains suspended outside the narrow set of cases ordered restored under Pacito v. Trump. The Ninth Circuit upheld most of the suspension last fall. Travel for the small group with imminent flights at the time of the freeze has resumed in small numbers, but the program is not running for the broader Afghan caseload. We hope to see Afghans included in the reportedly forthcoming “emergency” Presidential Determination update.
Family reunification. Families separated for years are still separated across all categories, with no relief expected in the near future.
Asylum. Asylum adjudications remain paused for nationals of all travel ban countries, including Afghans, under the USCIS “Global Asylum Hold” now being challenged in Dorcas v. USCIS. The new asylum fee rule takes effect May 29th, 2026. Combined with the surge in ICE enforcement and the elimination of categorical exemptions in Presidential Proclamation 10998, Afghan asylum seekers in the United States face a system that is both more expensive to navigate and more dangerous to engage.
Green cards and adjustment. As far as we can tell, green cards are only being processed for arriving SIVs, not for anyone else. The Dorcas International Institute of Rhode Island v. USCIS case, which challenges the USCIS policies behind this freeze, has a hearing on Thursday, May 21 in front of Chief Judge McConnell. A ruling is expected to follow. See the explainer below.
What Is Dorcas v. USCIS, and Why It Matters for Your Case
If you have an asylum, green card, or work permit application pending with USCIS, this case may affect you directly.
The case. A coalition of immigrant service organizations and labor unions, represented by Democracy Forward, RAICES, Muslim Advocates, the Lawyers’ Committee for Rhode Island, and the South Asian American Justice Collaborative, sued USCIS in the District of Rhode Island on March 5, 2026. They are challenging four policies that, together, have shut down large portions of the legal immigration system for people already living in the United States.
The four policies. The “Global Asylum Hold” indefinitely halts affirmative asylum adjudications. The “Benefits Hold” freezes work permit, green card, and other benefit applications for nationals of countries on the travel ban list, including Afghanistan. The “Comprehensive Re-Review” subjects previously approved benefits to renewed scrutiny. The “Country-Specific Factors Policy” tells officers to weigh country of origin against an applicant in discretionary decisions.
Why it matters for the Afghan community. Three of these four sit directly on top of Afghan cases. Asylum seekers cannot move their cases forward. Green card and work permit applicants are caught in the Benefits Hold because Afghanistan is on the travel ban list. Afghans already granted status are exposed to the Comprehensive Re-Review. If the court strikes down any or all of these policies, the affected processing should resume.
Where it stands. Briefing closed on May 8. The court has set a hearing for Thursday, May 21 before Chief Judge John J. McConnell, Jr. A ruling is expected to follow.
What to do now. Do not withdraw a pending application based on the current freeze. If you have an active asylum, green card, or work authorization case, talk to a credentialed immigration attorney about preserving your filing date. The case caption for your attorney is Dorcas International Institute of Rhode Island v. USCIS, 1:26-cv-00132 (D.R.I.). We will update the moment Chief Judge McConnell rules.
Bad Information Persists
The case processing freeze has produced a second crisis alongside the policy one. People with no real knowledge of how these systems work, no accountability to the community, and no access to the government they claim to represent are making decisions on behalf of vulnerable people who are looking to them for help. The damage is not theoretical. It is families spending money they do not have, skipping legal consultations that could save them, and walking into appointments without understanding the risk that denials carry for future visa consideration.
One example. In recent days, Saber Nasiri has told Afghan audiences that “lawyers are butchers and shouldn’t be trusted,” that case processing is moving forward and people should trust him on it, and that Afghans should keep traveling to their visa interviews. Read those claims against the State Department’s May 13 report. Zero SIVs issued in 2026. Telling Afghan families to distrust qualified legal counsel in a year of expanded ICE enforcement and a new asylum fee rule is dangerous on its own. Telling them to keep traveling to interviews without warning them their applications will not produce a visa is the same trap the State Department is setting, repackaged in friendlier language. This is not Nasiri’s first time doing this. During the CARE years, he was running the same playbook. We called him out then. He quietly went away for a time. He is back at it now.
Nasiri is not the only person spreading this kind of misinformation. He is indicative of a problem. The Afghan community has actual authoritative voices, coalition partners, credentialed attorneys, named officials, and case managers with track records anyone can verify. All of us, advocates, veterans, community leaders, journalists, and everyone with a platform, have an obligation to make sure what we share is accurate. If you do not know, say so. If you are not sure, ask someone who does. If you have a microphone, use it carefully.
If you are an Afghan ally or family member, do not take case advice from social media influencers. Talk to a credentialed immigration attorney. Use the AfghanEvac partner network. Consult the State Department’s official channels at AfghanSIVapplication@state.gov.
The U.S. government does not charge fees for SIV or Chief of Mission approval, does not contact applicants through messaging apps, and has not authorized any private individual to communicate status on its behalf.
If you have lost money or personal information to a scammer, report it to the FTC at reportfraud.ftc.gov.
The Ebola Outbreak in the Democratic Republic of the Congo
On Sunday, May 17, the World Health Organization declared the Ebola outbreak in the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Uganda a public health emergency of international concern. As of the WHO declaration, the outbreak had produced 246 suspected cases and 80 suspected deaths in the DRC’s Ituri province, with 9 laboratory-confirmed cases and additional confirmed cases reported in Goma and in Kampala, Uganda. The strain is Bundibugyo, for which there is no approved vaccine or therapeutic. Prior Bundibugyo outbreaks have killed around 40 percent of those infected.
This is the country to which, three weeks ago, senior State Department officials were proposing to send the 1,100 Afghan allies at Camp As Sayliyah, including more than 400 children and approximately 150 immediate family members of active-duty U.S. service members.
We said in April that the DRC plan was unsafe, coercive, operationally unserious, and morally indefensible. The Ebola declaration is not the reason it was wrong. It is one more reason it was wrong, and it removes any remaining ambiguity about the consequences of that proposal had it gone forward. Vetted Afghan allies, women, children, interpreters, and commandos would have been placed into a country in active conflict with Rwanda, hosting more than 600,000 existing refugees it cannot support, and now facing a regional Ebola outbreak.
The administration should formally rescind the DRC scenario, publicly confirm it is off the table, and brief Congress on what comes next.
Congressional Hearing Postponed
The congressional hearing which was scheduled for this week has been postponed. We will publish the new date as soon as it is set but we’ve heard either June 24th or sometime in September.
Senator Shaheen Calls on State to Admit CAS Residents
Senator Jeanne Shaheen, Ranking Member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, sent a letter to Secretary Rubio May 7th urging the administration to admit the vetted Afghan allies at Camp As Sayliyah to the United States under USRAP or humanitarian parole rather than continue the third-country relocation search. Her letter is consistent with, and builds on, the 29-senator letter Senator Blumenthal led after the April 25 virtual congressional delegation to CAS.
This is the Ranking Member of SFRC, with the full weight of that institutional position, telling the Secretary of State that the answer to CAS is admission to the United States. There is no third-country search that gets this right. Congo has now demonstrated that beyond any reasonable doubt.
If your senator or representative has not yet weighed in, ask them to. Specifically ask them to join Senator Shaheen and the 29 senators on Senator Blumenthal’s letter in publicly supporting U.S. admission for vetted CAS residents.
Pipeline snapshot, carried forward. Roughly 260,000 Afghan allies in processing across 90 countries. Roughly 178,000 with Chief of Mission approval. Roughly 1,100 at CAS. 5,970 SIV visas remaining in the annual allocation per the State Department’s May 13 report. These numbers are what is at stake.
In the Press
The End of Refugee Resettlement — The New Yorker
U.S. State Department: No SIV visas issued to Afghans in 2026 — 8AM Media
Ebola outbreak declared global public health emergency in Democratic Republic of Congo and Uganda — BBC News
WHO declares global health emergency over Ebola outbreak in Congo and Uganda — NBC News
World Health Organization declares Ebola outbreak in Congo a global health emergency — NPR
World Health Organization declares Ebola outbreak in Congo a global health emergency — KPBS
WHO declares Ebola outbreak in Congo, Uganda an emergency of international concern — CBC News
WHO declares Ebola outbreak in Congo and Uganda a global health emergency — PBS NewsHour
Can new Pakistan-Afghanistan tensions lead to another border clash? — Al Jazeera
Why Are the Afghan Taliban and Pakistan in an ‘Open War’? — Council on Foreign Relations
Ebola outbreak 2026: Q&A with experts — Imperial College London
The State Department’s own numbers, published this week, confirm what Afghan applicants have been living for five months. Zero visas issued.
The most rigorously vetted legal immigration pathway in modern U.S. history wound down without a vote, without a debate, and without honor.
A second proposal to send the people still owed safe passage to a country now facing an Ebola public health emergency has, by Sunday’s WHO declaration, become indefensible on grounds no one in this administration can dispute.
The path forward is not complicated. Admit vetted Afghan allies to the United States. Honor the SIV statute that still exists. Restore the adjudications USCIS has frozen.
We are furious. We are focused. We are not going anywhere.