Approved, Denied, or on Backlog: Issuance Rates, Trends, and Status of T and U Non-immigrant Visas in the United States Approved, Denied, or on Backlog: Issuance Rates, Trends, and Status of T and U Non-immigrant Visas in the United States

• Published in: Journal of international migration and integration Vol. 26; no. 2; pp. 841 - 853
• Main Author: Bejinariu, Alexa
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Dordrecht Springer Netherlands 01.06.2025; Springer Nature B.V
• Subjects: Applicants; Application; Backlog; Citizenship; COVID-19; Crime; Criminal investigations; Demography; Deportation; Domestic violence; Enactment; Foreign born citizens; Human trafficking; Immigrants; Immigration; Immigration policy; Migration; Pandemics; Passports & visas; Policy making; Population Economics; Sex crimes; Social Sciences; Sociology; Trafficking; Victims; Victims of crime; United States > US; Human trafficking; Immigration; Visa processing; TVPA legislation
• ISSN: 1488-3473; 1874-6365
• DOI: 10.1007/s12134-024-01205-1

With the enactment of the Trafficking Victims Protection Act of 2000, undocumented crime victims could legalize their status in the United States by obtaining either a T or a U non-immigrant visa. In essence, both visas provide immigration relief from deportation to foreign-born victims along with other legal protections. Although every year a total of 5000 T-visas and 10,000 U-visas are made available to qualifying crime victims, very little is known about their attainability, especially in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic. Using data from the US Citizenship and Immigration Services, the goal of this paper is (1) to examine the number of T- and U-visa applications received, approved, and denied from 2008 to 2022; (2) to identify any potential barriers to the T- and U-visa process that might explain changes in issuance rates over time; and (3) to discuss implications for policy and practice as well as future research directions. Although both visas have seen a decline in application numbers at the outset of the COVID-19 pandemic, USCIS data suggests that T- and U-visa applicants might be experiencing different visa processing issues. Implications for improving the visa application process include changes to the current eligibility requirements, improved victim identification efforts, and establishing a new framework for immigration policymaking.