After years of criticism from worried American service members and the news media, the government has stepped up pressure on the State Department to prioritize the program and streamline the byzantine application process, recently passing legislation that requires high-level oversight of the program and a series of measures to make the process less opaque.

“We are absolutely committed to granting visas to those who are eligible and who have applied for them,” said Jarrett Blanc, deputy special representative for Afghanistan and Pakistan.

If the government’s urgency about the program has changed, so has the political and security environment in Afghanistan, leaving many interpreters who helped Western troops and officials feeling increasingly desperate about what awaits them if the United States pulls out without them.

Mired in an acrimonious battle over President Hamid Karzai’s refusal to sign a long-term security agreement, the Obama administration has threatened to permanently withdraw all American troops, an endgame that grows more likely as the deal remains unsigned. Congress has cut aid to the nation by half for the coming year, incensed by the Afghan government’s release of detainees who have been accused of being militants.

Ahead of next month’s presidential elections, the Taliban have begun an intensified campaign of violence and disruption, and they have long threatened that Afghans who help the West do so under a death sentence.

Already the feeling of insecurity is palpable in the capital, with several marquee attacks in recent months highlighting the insurgents’ ability to strike at the heart of both Western life and the Afghan government.

Now, some of the interpreters no longer feel safe even at their mosques, where imams during Friday Prayer denounce the foreign presence and criticize the Afghans who aid it.