Afghan & Iraqi Interpreters Wait Years for Special Immigrant Visas

Following the fall of Saddam Hussein’s regime in 2003, the US Congress created the Special Immigrant Visa (SIV) program to provide visas to Iraqi linguists who have faced threats from the Taliban and other insurgent groups as a result of their work with the US military.

A similar visa program was established in 2009 for Afghan interpreters who were confronted with similar threats.

The goal of the SIV program, initially, was to set aside 5,000 visas per year for Iraqis who had worked for at least a year with the US military and could prove this association resulted in a grave threat to them. The Afghan visa program set aside 1,500 visas per year.

However, the legislation granting these visas is set to expire.

And though 6,500 visas were set aside for these programs, only a fraction of this number has been processed. While thousands of Afghan and Iraqi interpreters have applied to the program, just over 22 percent of the available visas for Iraqi allies have been granted, and only 12 percent of the Afghan visas have been distributed.

As a Deadline Looms, Legislators Work to Extend SIV Program

Faced with a significant backlog and with the Iraqi and Afghan visa programs scheduled to close out shortly — at the end of 2013 and 2014, respectively — human rights organizations, activists and members of Congress are asking for an extension of the deadline and a revamp to the way that visa applications are processed.

Legislation has been introduced in both the House and Senate that would extend the deadline and perhaps correct some of the issues that have plagued the program.

An amendment to the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) introduced by Oregon Representative Earl Blumenauer has already passed. Senators John McCain of Arizona and Jeanne Shaheen of New Hampshire introduced an analogous piece of legislation that is scheduled to be voted on as part of the NDAA.

The Importance of a Qualified Interpreter

The role that Afghans and Iraqis have played as embedded linguists with the US military underscores the vital need for interpreters. While their primary purpose is to provide a linguistic bridge between speakers of different languages, they can also provide cultural insight as well, which is why it is important to work with a qualified interpreter.

Interpreters are not simply individuals who know how to speak a particular language. Not only are they trained in the nuances of a language, but they also have knowledge of the specialized vocabulary of a particular subject, be it military, medical or legal.

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