weeks, since august 14, to thousands upon thousands of sivs. those are principle applicants as well as their family members. this applies to all of the categories that you run through. in the context of this massive unprecedented evacuation effort, our first goal is to have bring as many people to safety as quick as possible. in many cases, we are going to be in a better position to provide the fidelity on numbers in the coming days and coming weeks as this process has been ongoing, our goal is to put as many people on as many planes as we can. the accounting we ll be able to do in more details in the coming days. to sivs, we reached to thousands upon thousands.
begin processing. we ve been at this for a few days. so at each location we will spin up quickly here and begin the application and the process for a special immigrant status. the siv application process is a long process. what happens if at some point while somebody is on the military base they feel the screen something are they going back to afghanistan? what is the plan there? are you also taking questions? later. i defer you to the department of state for that. that s their area of expertise. we re prepared to continue this support until we get through this process in support of the state department. if somebody failed the screening process and is already on a u.s. facility.
waits that you described. we worked very hard over the last couple days to make the process as efficient and effective. when i say we, dod worked with the process owner, dhs, to streamline this. specifically customs and boarder protection along with tsa who owns that process, if you will. some of the challenges, use of the proper vetting authorities to ensure that we looked at the same ones and that they were coming across, we knew exactly who was certifying that. that is customs that was certifying it across to the other side. what was happening is, if the improper system was utilized, they were being flagged as red on the receiving end at dulles. that should give you comfort that we re not leaning towards more conservative of pushing them out but ensuring
base? they stay on they ll stay on base until they complete the special immigrant visa processing process, which is owned by the state department with the support. we provide medical support, contract medical support as part of that. each of the applicants will go through a screening process like screening for diseases, vaccinations, if they need vaccinated. we ll have the international migration organization come in towards the end and work with them on where they need to be relocated. many have family here in the united states. or they ll be relocated to places where there s already afghan populations, et cetera. what we saw at fort lee with those that already had some type of a special immigrant visa processing is that was taken about five to seven days. we won t know exactly how long it will take until the state department and everybody is on the ground full up and ready to
bases, many of them left their country with very little and probably have different levels of means to start with like over here. how long is dod prepared to house and feed the refugees? we re prepared to house and feed them as long as it takes to get them through the process and as long as the secretary approves that. i agree with you. they re coming here, starting over with what they bring with them. we ve been incredibly well-supported by the local communities, the nongovernmental organizations that have jumped in to help these families with things of need like diapers, formula, clothing. you name it. you see the gamut when you talk about the large numbers and we ve been tremendously blessed to have great support. willing to host as they go through the process. what do you mean by the process? if they don t have a place to go, how long can they stay on