@yasmin982 It is true that Ankara has issued very few IR1/CR1 visas to Turks lately. In September-November, they issued 148 IR1/CR1 visas, but only 14 of those went to Turks (9%). In other words, 91% of IR1/CR1 visas went to non-Turks in that 3-month period. Pre-COVID it was much different with most months having more than 50% of visas going to Turks (from Oct 2019 to Jan 2020, in an average month, 62% of IR1 visas went to Turks).
During COVID, only Turks (and I think legal permanent residents) could get interviews, so the backlog of non-Turks/non-residents grew large. It seems like they are making up for that now by processing more non-Turks who couldn't be processed during COVID. But it has been over a year since everyone could be interviewed, yet the backlog remains large. You would think after a full year of operation, they could balance the caseload, but that sadly isn't the case. Even still, non-Turks are waiting longer than Turks, so it is rough for them too.
Many Iranians (probably most) are processed in Ankara because Iran doesn't have a consulate. I don't blame the Iranians for this issue, however, it creates a situation where Turks are put at a disadvantage through no fault of their own. And we also know many Syrians and Afghans come through Ankara too.
One thing I find annoying is how many IR5 (parents visas) they process. For example, in November, they processed 168 IR5 vs. 51 IR1/CR1. That is over 3 times the amount. Naturally there will be more IR5 because they do them in spousal pairs, but they are going much beyond that. I think it is easy to argue that having your spouse is more important than having your parent, but that is just my opinion. Maybe the backlog is even greater for IR5, so that is why they are doing more.
On the bright side, we can say that Ankara has definitely increased how many immigrant visas they are issuing. The numbers are greatly increased from last year, but it just doesn't seem like they are prioritizing IR1/CR1 visas at this time.
We know they have the capacity to process many immigrant visas. For example, for DV visas, they were issuing over 200 per month for a few months and did over 600 in September! If, just for one month, the prioritized IR1/CR1 visas, they could likely clear the whole backlog. And DV visas are probably more complicated than IR1/CR1 visas, so it isn't a complexity issue.
Put simply, Ankara isn't prioritizing IR1/CR1 visas. They aren't ignoring them either, but they seem satisfied issuing around 40-60 per month (that is the range for the last 6-months).
The communication from the consulate on all these issues is absent. It would at least be nice to know how they are prioritizing visas and a rough estimate of the backlog in each category. As a US citizen, it is frustrating that a government agency can withhold such basic information, especially since they give estimates of non-immigration visas! Pre-COVID when the wait times weren't bad, I understand not releasing such information because you could expect an interview in 1-3 months and that was consistent. But given these unprecedented backlogs, you would think they would show some compassion and give us a little more information so we can do some life planning.
I find some comfort in tracking the numbers (obviously I am a little obsessed ), but there is little we can do except wait. The way the are processing and prioritizing isn't clear or consistent, so it is bascailly useless to predict what they will do next.
The best piece of information we have is knowing when our friends get their interview dates and when they were DQ'd. Right now we have 7 people from August-October waiting for interview dates. They are:
@lucky2022 - DQ late August
@Handan - DQ August 30
@Naile-İlyas - DQ August 31
@AE123 - DQ September 29
@ekdodo - DQ October 17
@mazeno - DQ October 20
@t34 - DQ October 30
Please add anyone I might have missed.