US visa issuance in the last two years has been at an all-time low.

 US visa issuance in the last two years has been at an all-time low.

In 2020–2021, the US Embassies and Consulates around the world granted a record-low number of visas. Since the epidemic, the number of immigrants coming to the US has decreased according to almost every indicator.

COVID- The State Department was forced by 19 restrictions to award 68 percent fewer non-immigrant visas in 2020-2021 compared to 2019 and 38 percent fewer immigrant visas. Each year, the United States awards between 8.5 million and 10 million nonimmigrant visas across all categories. Approximately 4,013,210 non-immigrant visas were issued in 2020 and 2,792,083 in 2021, according to statistics made public by the US State Department.

In contrast, in 2019 there were 8,742,068 non-immigrant visas issued. In contrast to 21,356 and 16,476 respectively in 2019, the US Embassy in Islamabad and the US Consulate in Karachi respectively awarded 15, 642 and 10,127 non-immigrant visas to Pakistani nationals in 2020.

In comparison to these two years, the number of non-immigrant visas issued in other years is much larger. As an illustration, 8,742,068 visas were issued in 2019 and 9,028,026 in 2018. and in 2017 there were issued around 9,681, 913. Approximately 240,526 immigration visas were given in 2020 and 285,069 in 2021 at US Foreign Service Posts, down from 462,422 visas in 2019.

The shutdown of US embassies and consulates across the world as a result of the epidemic was the primary factor in fewer visas being issued in 2020 and 2021. (COVID-19).

The foreign posts kept issuing only limited numbers of emergency category visas in the interim. The US State Department states that "Posts were told to halt normal visa services and perform only mission critical and emergency services in late March 2020 because to the COVID-19 epidemic."

The provision of services linked to immigrant and nonimmigrant visas was significantly impacted by this. Limited services might only be resumed by individual posts as local conditions permitted starting in July 2020.