A U.S. talent visa and green card for citizens of Belarus in 2026: how do you file from Minsk, Warsaw, or Vilnius?

A developer in Minsk and his former colleague in Vilnius filed EB-1A petitions a month apart, with nearly the same folders: both were critical engineers on a product the industry knows, and both had hackathon judging and publications. The approvals came a week apart. After that their routes split. Four months later the one in Vilnius was at an interview in Warsaw as a resident of Lithuania. The one in Minsk spent half a year working out how to pay the fees, whom to send the package to, and when the immigrant visa issuance pause for citizens of his country would be lifted. The petition was the same. The route was not — and the route is what this article is about.

In brief

• The categories for Belarusians are the same as for everyone else. EB-1A and EB-2 NIW are self-petitions, and O-1 is a petition too. None of the three is limited by citizenship.
• The consulate: Minsk has been closed since 2022, and Warsaw handles immigrant cases for Belarus. People living in Poland, Lithuania, or Georgia are interviewed where they reside.
• In 2026, from 21 January through August, immigrant visa issuance was paused for citizens of 75 countries, including Belarus. Interviews were held. Issuance resumed in September.
• Logistics from Minsk — payment, shipping, translations — go through a representative in the United States. From Warsaw or Vilnius they go the ordinary way.

What do Belarusians share with everyone else, and how does their route differ from the Russian one?

The petition is the same for everyone. USCIS reviews the I-140 and the I-129 by the same criteria for a citizen of any country. The second stage of review, premium processing, a Request for Evidence (RFE) — none of it has a national twist. Belarusians received approvals all through 2026, and in not one decision did citizenship appear as a ground. Which criteria there are, and how an officer reads them, is in “What are the talent visa criteria”.

The differences are in the route, and there are three of them. The consulate: for Russians it is Warsaw and Astana; for Belarusians it is Warsaw, while hundreds of thousands of Belarusians already live in Poland, Lithuania, and Georgia and go through consular processing as residents, which removes half the questions. The pause: Belarus was on the list of 75 countries for which the Department of State, from 21 January through August, paused immigrant visa issuance. Russia was on it too, but for Belarusians it came as a surprise, because until 2026 their consular route had been simpler than the Russian one. Logistics: cards from Belarusian banks work abroad only selectively, and express couriers have not worked with Belarus since 2022 — so Belarusians in Minsk found themselves in the same position as Russians. We take each difference on its own, starting with the one that surprised everyone this year.

What did the 2026 pause mean, and what is left of it?

On 21 January the Department of State paused immigrant visa issuance for citizens of 75 countries — from Brazil to Kazakhstan — and explained it as a review of the risk that applicants would rely on public benefits. Belarus was on the list. The detail the chats missed: the pause covered issuance only. Interviews were scheduled and held, documents were accepted, and USCIS kept reviewing petitions as usual. What froze was the last step, the visa being placed in the passport. Issuance resumed at the end of August — and almost at once ran into a global pause on interviews from 25 August, lifted by mid-September. In the autumn of 2026 both pauses are over, but the wait for an interview in Warsaw is measured in months.

The practical conclusion for Belarusians: file the petition now, whatever the consular news. A USCIS decision does not depend on the pauses, and a place in the interview queue is better taken with an approved petition in hand. The second conclusion is for anyone with a second citizenship of a country off the list: filing on the second passport lifted the pause entirely.

The consulate: Warsaw, Vilnius, and residents of third countries

The U.S. embassy in Minsk has not offered consular services since 2022. Immigrant cases for citizens of Belarus — interviews for EB-1A and NIW visas, and family visas — are handled by the embassy in Warsaw. The National Visa Center (NVC) routes those cases there by default, and the immigrant visa application is Form DS-260. Nonimmigrant visas, including the O-1, Belarusians receive in Warsaw, in Vilnius, and at any embassy that accepts applicants from third countries.

For people living in Poland, Lithuania, Georgia, or another country with a residence permit, the route is simpler in every respect: the interview where they reside, a police certificate from the country of residence in addition to the Belarusian one, the medical exam with a panel physician where they live, cards that work, and couriers. Their only particular feature is citizenship. Pauses and limits tied to the passport apply to them exactly as they do to people living in Minsk.

Logistics from Minsk: payment, shipping, documents

Paying the fees. Cards from sanctioned Belarusian banks do not work abroad. Cards from the others do, but the USCIS payment system rejects some foreign cards with no explanation, and a rejection means the whole package comes back. That is why we pay the fees on a representative’s card, on Form G-1450, with reimbursement under the contract — we do this for every client from Belarus and from Russia. The alternative is a money order issued by a trusted person in the United States.

Shipping. Express couriers have not worked with Belarus since 2022. The package is either sent from Poland or Lithuania — many people in Minsk pass the documents through relatives and colleagues — or it is assembled and filed by a representative in the United States: the scans are gathered into one package, printed, and sent to the lockbox with tracking. USCIS does not require originals.

Police certificate. For consular processing, one from the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Belarus. It is obtained in person or by a power of attorney, and it takes up to a month. Anyone who has lived abroad for more than a year also needs one from the country of residence.

Translations and an apostille. USCIS accepts a certified translation: the text plus the translator’s statement that it is complete and accurate. A notary and an apostille are not required. At consular processing the consulate may require an apostille on civil documents. Belarus is a party to the Hague Convention, and the apostille is issued by the Ministry of Justice and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs — allow two to three weeks.

The diploma. Evaluation services accept Belarusian diplomas. An evaluation is required for NIW and is not required for EB-1A.

The detailed logistics of filing are the same as for Russians, with the consulate as the difference: “EB-1A from Russia in 2026”.

What evidence do Belarusians have, and how do officers read it?

The Belarusian IT industry has given USCIS officers names they already know: products the world knows, and engineers with roles in them. That supports the criterion of a leading or critical role for an organization with a distinguished reputation — provided there is a dossier on the company: published material about it, investment, users, a place in the market. The second strong point is judging and mentoring at hackathons and accelerators, of which there are many in the Belarusian community and now in the Polish and Lithuanian one. What is needed is a record that the work happened, not only the invitations. The third is publications: a Belarusian outlet with an editorial staff counts like any other, if you show the audience and that the editors are independent. For people who have relocated, Polish and Lithuanian outlets are added.

The weak point is the same as for everyone: recognition inside the company. Company awards, “employee of the year,” a salary “above the Belarus average” are not criteria. Pay is compared with highly compensated people in the field, against independent statistics — and here Belarusians have a particular feature. IT salaries in Belarus, in dollars, are often higher than an officer expects, and letters with the right comparison meet the criterion more often than it seems.

Three routes for three situations

The two engineers from the first paragraph received their green cards seven months apart. The one from Minsk waited longer for the interview and spent two months on correspondence about fees and shipping that he would not have had to conduct if he had known about the representative from the start. Their petitions were equally strong. The difference in time was entirely the route. Which of the three routes is yours, you already know. Whether you have a petition to start it with is what the quiz below shows.