A bipartisan bill has been presented in both houses of the United States in order to establish a path to American citizenship for a large number of Afghanistan evacuees admitted to the US on temporary immigration status.
According to a report published by Reuters, the legislation would also expand eligibility for Special Immigration Visas (SIVs) beyond citizens of Afghanistan who worked for the government of the United States to those who fought alongside US forces as commandos as well as air force personnel and to women who served in special counterterrorism teams, VisaGuide.World reports.
At the same time, identical versions of the bill were presented days before the first anniversary of the final US troop’s withdrawal, as well as the operation that put an end to America’s longest war.
“We must keep our commitment to provide safe, legal refuge to those who willingly put their lives on the line to support the United States mission in Afghanistan,” Democratic Representative Earl Blumenauer, co-sponsor of the House bill with Republican Peter Meijer, pointed out in this regard in a statement.According to a report provided by the Foreign Policy, there are about 77,200 Afghans who filed an application for a special immigrant visa (SIV) to the US still in Afghanistan. Besides of the total, 10,400 primary applicants have received the chief of mission approval, according to two US officials, as well as a congressional aide briefed on the recently available data. It has been reported that the US helped to evacuate about 130,000 citizens from Afghanistan from the country before Kabul fell to the Taliban. In this regard, a US official familiar with the matter stressed that at the rate that the US is going, it might take several years, maybe four to five, for these persons to get SIV applications approved. According to a State Department spokesperson, it has issued a total of 15,000 SIVs to applicants as well as their family members, and a total of ,000 SIV applicants have submitted all the documents required for SIV approval.
“The Department of State has the highest respect for the men and women who have taken serious risks to support our military and civilian personnel,” the spokesperson pointed out in this regard.Besides, the spokesperson stressed that authorities in the US are taking these threats very seriously and are committed to providing efficient and secure Special Immigration Visas processing while keeping national security as the highest priority.