MrsBasilEFrankweiler

I am not the OP, but in case he doesn't reply, I left this in a comment above.

PS. Sorry OP if I am violating Reddit courtesy. I think what you're doing (especially informing people about how and why all this works) is so very important and I want to make sure that as many people as possible actually understand how complicated the whole mess is.

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There were a ton of Afghans who worked on aid programs in Afghanistan - sometimes directly on projects, other times because what they did (e.g. working for a government agency) received funding from a donor. The aid sector is a big employer.

I think that people underestimate the difficulty of getting a visa and getting out, however. SIVs can take years to process - there has been a massive backlog at State for a long time. And the only people who qualify for SIVs are people who worked directly for the US government, on behalf of the US government, or in support of the US military.

So, for example, that would leave out:

• Anyone who worked for an aid project that received grant money, as opposed to contract money. Grant money typically goes to nonprofit entities (e.g. Save the Children). Contract money goes to companies that are hired to implement aid activities in a country. If you get grant money, you are not technically hired to do USG work, so you are not technically working on behalf of the US government.
• Anyone who was in the Afghan military who worked in collaboration with the USG, because they weren't directly supporting US military efforts in a direct and traceable way like an interpreter would be.
• Journalists.
• Anyone who does meet the criteria listed above, but who worked there for less than two years, or whose employer messed up the paperwork, or whose employer maybe got bought by someone else so they technically worked for one company for a year and a half and another company for a year and a half.

I am not as familiar with other countries' visa schemes, but my understanding is that they're usually similar or even more strict (for example, I looked into this for Japan a couple of years ago and they didn't even seem to have an SIV program).

The US did expand its visa program to include grantee organizations, journalists, etc. with something called a P-2. However, until very recently, you had to leave the country to apply for a P-2, and even then there were no guarantees. Most countries do not provide visa on arrival, especially with COVID, and even for those who do, it's not like you can just get off the plane in Uganda and go buy a house or get a job if you don't know anyone there.

Finally, Afghanistan has been very chaotic for a very long time. I think it was hard for people to definitively say, "Well, this time we're hosed." My impression is that a lot of people thought that things would be bad, and then maybe okay, and then maybe bad again, but it's hard to say exactly which instance of "bad" justifies leaving everything you've ever known and dragging your extended family of ten to a country that's completely foreign to them.

TL;DR: This is harder than you'd think.

Anyone with better info (or if I got something wrong), please feel free to correct me, but this is my experience.

Not OP, but in case he doesn't reply: P-2 visas (https://www.state.gov/u-s-refugee-admissions-program-priority-2-designation-for-afghan-nationals/). Once that's in, reach out to your local politicians to see if they have anyone working on these efforts, and if not, if they have contacts for people at State who can assist.

Feel free to send me a DM if you have questions about this.

There were a ton of Afghans who worked on aid programs in Afghanistan - sometimes directly on projects, other times because what they did (e.g. working for a government agency) received funding from a donor. The aid sector is a big employer.

I think that people underestimate the difficulty of getting a visa and getting out, however. SIVs can take years to process - there has been a massive backlog at State for a long time. And the only people who qualify for SIVs are people who worked directly for the US government, on behalf of the US government, or in support of the US military.

So, for example, that would leave out:

• Anyone who worked for an aid project that received grant money, as opposed to contract money. Grant money typically goes to nonprofit entities (e.g. Save the Children). Contract money goes to companies that are hired to implement aid activities in a country. If you get grant money, you are not technically hired to do USG work, so you are not technically working on behalf of the US government.
• Anyone who was in the Afghan military who worked in collaboration with the USG, because they weren't directly supporting US military efforts in a direct and traceable way like an interpreter would be.
• Journalists.
• Anyone who does meet the criteria listed above, but who worked there for less than two years, or whose employer messed up the paperwork, or whose employer maybe got bought by someone else so they technically worked for one company for a year and a half and another company for a year and a half.

I am not as familiar with other countries' visa schemes, but my understanding is that they're usually similar or even more strict (for example, I looked into this for Japan a couple of years ago and they didn't even seem to have an SIV program).

The US did expand its visa program to include grantee organizations, journalists, etc. with something called a P-2. However, until very recently, you had to leave the country to apply for a P-2, and even then there were no guarantees. Most countries do not provide visa on arrival, especially with COVID, and even for those who do, it's not like you can just get off the plane in Uganda and go buy a house or get a job if you don't know anyone there.

Finally, Afghanistan has been very chaotic for a very long time. I think it was hard for people to definitively say, "Well, this time we're hosed." My impression is that a lot of people thought that things would be bad, and then maybe okay, and then maybe bad again, but it's hard to say exactly which instance of "bad" justifies leaving everything you've ever known and dragging your extended family of ten to a country that's completely foreign to them.

TL;DR: This is harder than you'd think.

Anyone with better info (or if I got something wrong), please feel free to correct me, but this is my experience.

Thank you!

I am not saying that the visa situation is solely the fault of the current administration. Note that I said "years." The whole thing is a mess and has been that way for a long time. I also appreciate that there were a ton of people who got evacuated in spite of the nightmarish logistical obstacles, and absolutely give credit to the people who worked on that; in fact, I have friends who were involved in those efforts at all different levels, and I know that they worked day and night to make sure that as many people were evacuated as possible.

That said, I would respectfully disagree with what you're saying about the people who were "left behind." I personally know multiple people with SIVs who were, in fact, not able to get through the airport gates, despite receiving explicit instructions from the USG to go claim their seat on a plane.

Also, a lot of folks have been making the case to get expatriated to other countries. Those processes also take time. It's not like everyone was just like "oh gee, oops, I guess there's only a week left." Were there some people who didn't plan appropriately? Surely. But I disagree that everything was done as well as it could have been.