The package arrived inside a transparent plastic pouch, unwrapped with no ribbons, and yet, to Ms. Z, it was like a shiny, glittery Christmas present from heaven.

Only two weeks ago, she was at the US Embassy in Manila, anxiously waiting for her immigrant visa interview. After her name was called, everything was a blur. All she could remember was the consul's smiling face and the quick approval.

She recalled being told that her visa would arrive within two weeks, and it did, along with her passport, precisely as she was told.

As a nursing graduate from the Philippines, Ms. Z dreamed of working in the US one day. As fate would have it, a US-based agency sponsored her as a Nurse Assistant just before the pandemic started.

But like thousands of aspiring nurse immigrants in the country, she had to endure years of uncertainties as she waited for her visa interview at the US Embassy in Manila.

In the meantime, she had to parry and sieve through the unsolicited advice of friends, relatives, and even strangers on how to speed up her case, some well-meaning, some laced with envy, with a sprinkling of suggestions from so-called travel experts whose ideas at times bordered on the inane, if not otherwise nibbling around the edges of illegality.

Fortunately for Ms. Z, a US-based relative was persistent enough to keep badgering her lawyer about her case, who in turn took a somewhat unconventional but legal approach to get her case moving despite the processing gridlock at the National Visa Center or NVC.

To provide a proper perspective on Ms. Z's case, once an immigrant petition has been approved by the United States Citizenship and Immigration Services, the file is forwarded to the NVC for preliminary processing in preparation for its eventual transmittal to a US consulate abroad for the visa applicant's in-person interview.

However, only those petitions whose priority date is already current (meaning, a visa for the relevant category is already available based on the State Department's monthly Visa Bulletin) are eligible for interview transmittal.

Just the same, the fact that a case is "current" doesn't mean it is automatically placed in line for a visa interview.  The NVC takes a "first-in, first-out" approach to determine which "current" cases are ready for the final interview transmittal, which, due to the limited number of interview slots at US embassies abroad, creates a logjam of "current" cases collecting dust at the NVC, to the detriment of anxious visa applicants.

Enter the NVC's "expedited processing" policy.

Through this program, an immigrant visa applicant, in coordination with his/her employer or petitioner, can submit a formal request to the NVC to prioritize his/her case in interview scheduling for urgent humanitarian and/or medical reasons.

Examples of humanitarian reasons are severe political violence in the applicant's home country, extreme financial hardship, and other similar factors, the urgency of which can be quantified through evidentiary means.

Urgent medical reasons include looming major surgical procedures, emergent medical needs in the US, failing health that can lead to death or serious illness, and the like.  Proof can be in the form of medical records or physician's statements, among others.

If the request appears compelling on its face, the NVC forwards the application to the relevant US Embassy to determine if the case merits priority consideration.

Luckily for Ms. Z, her case passed the expedited policy criteria on medical-related grounds, resulting in an accelerated consular appointment and visa approval within six weeks from the initial expedited request submission.

An early Christmas present for a deserving client, indeed.