applicants. there had not been a single si virks interview since march of 2020. on february 4th, one of the first executive orders issued by president biden directed us to immediately review the siv program to identify causes of undo delay and find ways to process siv applications more quickly. this spring, i directed significant additional resources to the program. expanding the team of people in washington processing applications from ten to 50. doubling the number of siv adjudicators. even as many embassy personnel began to return, we sent more consular officers to kabul to process siv applications. as a result of these and other steps including working with congress, especially this
to 50 and doubling the number of siv adjudicators at our embassy in kabul. we sent more consular officers to kabul to process siv applications. as a result of these and other steps, including working with congress, by may, we had reduced the average processing time for special immigrant visas by more than a year. even amid a covid surge in june, we continued to issue visas and we went from issuing about 100 special immigrant visas per week in march to more than 1,000 per week in august when our evacuation and relocation efforts began. that emergency evacuation was spark sparked by the collapse of the afghan security forces and government. throughout the year, we were constantly assessing their staying power and considering multiple scenarios. even the most pessimistic assessments did not predict that government forces in kabul would collapse while u.s. forces
process in kabul. on january 4, 1 of the very first executive orders issued by president biden directed us to process siv applications more efficiently and quickly. i added 50 people to the team in washington to process applications. we also sent more siv adjudicators to kabul and doubled the siv adjudicators working on applications. when going on departure in april and many of the embassy personnel returned to the united states, we sent more siv adjudicators. in may, we lessened the type of