Overseas consular immigrant visa processing
Consular immigrant visa processing refers to
applications that are sent first to the National Visa Center, and from there to an overseas consular post for a final
interview. The National Visa Center (NVC) will "pre-process" the application in the United States. When the
application is complete, and a visa number becomes "current" for the applicant, the NVC will then schedule an
appointment for the applicant at his or her home consular post abroad and send the file to that office.
Because these cases are pre-processed, and also because there are far fewer legal grounds for refusal of visas processed this way, the approval rate for these types of immigrant visa applications is substantially higher than that of similar adjustment of status applications.