President 
Donald Trump's administration resumed processing immigrant visa applications from Hungary and Poland last week while maintaining a temporary pause on immigrant visa appointments elsewhere. The directive to prioritize immigrant visas at the U.S. missions in the two countries came from the White House, two of four people familiar with the matter said. A State Department spokesperson did not comment on why processing resumed for the two countries, the Korea Times reported.
Why Hungary and Poland? It was not immediately clear why the two countries were singled out, but Trump and his senior aides have cultivated far-right allies in both. Trump publicly endorsed former Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban, who was defeated in an election in April, and Poland's nationalist President Karol Nawrocki, whose election has put him at odds with the centrist government of Prime Minister Donald Tusk. Deputy Secretary of State Christopher Landau instructed senior State Department officials to facilitate a U.S. visa for a fugitive former Polish cabinet minister who had taken refuge from corruption charges in Hungary, the Korea Times reported, citing a May Reuters report.
What is the wider pause? Trump has long campaigned on stopping illegal immigration, but his second term has been defined in equal measure by efforts to curb legal migration. Beyond travel bans on dozens of countries and new fees for certain work visas, the State Department said in January it was temporarily suspending immigrant visa processing in 75 countries where applicants were "at a high risk for becoming a public charge," the Korea Times reported. After U.S. District Judge Jeannette A. Vargas struck down that policy as "patently unlawful" on August 21, the department told missions worldwide to cancel immigrant visa appointments, two people with knowledge of the situation said. In a public statement on August 25, it said the pause would remain until staffers were trained to assess whether applicants could support themselves without relying on public benefits.
How long could it last? The government said in a court filing that interviews were temporarily rescheduled through August 31, but the suspension could last months because of how the training is structured. Missions must self-train on materials sent from Washington, and a consular officer then has to visit each post to certify the training is complete, a person familiar with the matter said. On Reddit, people from countries including Peru, the United Kingdom and India posted about appointments canceled through September. "We were at the finish line and now this," one wrote.
Figures referenced: Donald Trump. — JudgeMarket.
