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Winners and Losers

The July 2007 Visa Bulletin rocked the immigration world by declaring all Employment Based Visa Categories for US “Current”, which means is through out the month of July 2007, aliens in US who have either filed their Form I-140 or already have approved I-140s in their possession can file for irrespective of their priority dates. The current status extended to all EB categories except for EB Third category “Other Workers”, which is currently unavailable. For more details read our news story July 2007 Visa Bulletin: All EB Categories Current!

“Current” Status May Be Revoked by July 3rd?

In a disappointing turn of events, recent developments indicate that the State department is very likely to issue a revised July Visa Bulletin by 3rd July and declare most of the EB Categories retrogressed, if not unavailable!

Officially, the Bulletin should hold good for the month of July. But the reports from AILA indicate that the State Department may have pushed for the Current status simply to try and allocate the 70,000 EB visa numbers remaining for this fiscal year. Once the cap is met, the window will be closed.

The July 2007 Visa Bulletin officially states that the EB categories have been made “Current” by the Citizenship and Immigration Services (CIS) in an effort to generate more demand and to speed up adjustment of status cases. More precisely, the CIS is trying to meet the Backlog clearance deadline of September 2007 as well as allocating the EB visa numbers before the end of this fiscal year i.e. September.

Whether the window of opportunity is cut short or not, we suggest that applications should be filed as early as possible in July.

Visa Retrogression likely by July End

Figuratively, the gates are being thrown open for the public and there is going to be a stampede. While this analogy may seem amusing, the reality is that the demand for green card visas is much higher then the number of visas available. By FY 2008, the retrogression will be severe enough to render some categories even unavailable.

File early to beat the retrogression

Just as it was with H1B applications this year, the rush of application for Green Card will also most likely result in slowing down the processing time. Filing and receipting will probably take weeks if not months. Under the circumstances, if your notice of rejection or RFE (request for further evidence) is delayed by two months till October, it can mean having to wait for another 6 years. It does not take a genius to realize that the rush of application following this announcement will lead to severe retrogression again, just as the Bulletin itself predicts.

As we already mentioned in our news articles, use your I-140 approvals prudently. For example, if the applicant has applied for or have approved 140s under both EB-2 and EB-3 categories, it will be smarter to apply with I-140 applied under EB2 category for now. In case your application is rejected, the EB-3 petition can come handy even during future retrogression. Also remember EB-3 Other Worker numbers will become available from the next fiscal year.

File Before July 30th to avoid higher fees

In case you have not been following the news, the USCIS filing fees are slated to increase on July 30th 2007. Under the new fee Schedule, I-485 filing fees will go up from $395 to $1010 for most applicants. So it’s advisable that you file before to avoid paying more.

Benefits of having your I-485 applied for

  1. Filed for I-485 this July and holding an approved I-140? You can take advantage of AC 21 portability i.e. port or get a new sponsor and new job by February 2008 without redoing I-140 and Labor Certification.

  2. Your immediate family can get Employment Authorization Documents.

  3. You and your family members can travel under Advance Paroles even if you don’t have valid dual-intent visas.

  4. Even if the priority dates retrogress, your case will simply be on hold until the priority dates become current and in the meantime you are still enjoy all the benefits mentioned above.

Good news for “Schedule A” workers

Now that the employment-based third-preference (EB-3) “skilled workers” category has been made current, applicants for “Schedule A” occupation (registered nurse or physical therapist) may bypass the Labor certification requirement and proceed directly with the immigrant visa petition. This is possible as the Department of Labor (DOL) has pre-certified registered nurses (RNs) and physical therapists (PTs) as “shortage occupations”.

Switch from Consular processing to Adjustment of Status

It’s not good news for those who need to go through Consular Processing i.e. appear at a US Consulate in the applicants country or any country other than US. Most applicants will be pressed for time to finish medical exam and interview in time before September 2007. Moreover, they actually need to enter the U.S. with their immigrant visas before the priority dates retrogress.
However, all is not lost. It is possible to change from Consular Processing to Adjustment of Status. For CP cases, the original approved I-140 is sent directly to the National Visa Center (NVC) for CP by the USCIS Service Center on arrival.

So, the applicant needs to file an I-485 AOS before the approval of the immigrant visa at the consulate. If the I-140 is pending, on approval the person can start AOS process. But if the I-140 approval has already reached the NVC by the time the application is made then it takes around 120 days for it to be sent back to the particular USCIS service center.

Backlog Elimination Center update

According to DOL as of mid-March 2007 there was 96,304 cases left to process of which approx. 75,000 are Traditional cases and 20,000 RIR cases. They noted that they expect most RIRs without any issues to be completed by the end of April 2007.

The new fiscal year 2008 will probably see more Backlog numbers, owing to the huge number of I-485 filings. This will mean slower processing of filed cases.

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