Monday, March 26, 2012

MAY VISA BULLETIN WILL RETROGRESS FOR SOME EB-2

The Department of State’s point man on the Visa Bulletin has confirmed for AILA that India and China EB-2 will retrogress to August 15, 2007, a dramatic retrogression from the recent progression of China and India EB-2 number. Charlie Oppenheim, Chief, DOS Immigrant Visa Control & Reporting, says that demand for the EB-2 numbers is high due to the progression of EB-2 dates from November 2011 – April 2012.

USCIS has informed Mr. Oppenheim that they will continue to “preadjudicate” adjustment applications received through April. The “preadjudicated” cases will be held by the State Department in the “pending” demand file. That way, the cases will be ready in October, or earlier, if the current number use pattern changes, and they are needed at the end of this fiscal year to assure utilization of the full employment-based permanent resident visa allocation.

The Department of State historically has progressed dates to stimulate demand in the visa numbers. That practice came under some criticism during the Summer 2007 “VisaGate” incident when the DOS progressed to ‘current’ all categories in response to the USCIS’ inability to approve any I-485, Applications for Adjustment of Status. This flooded the USCIS with 300,000 Applications in the Summer 2007, forcing USCIS to begin approving I-485 Applications. Since VisaGate the progression of visa number has been measured, until this accelerated EB-2 progression began in November 2011.

7 comments:

  1. Is it possible that Eb3row will be retrogressed?
    Thank you Chris in advance for helpful information.

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  2. I doubt it. My expectation is that it will move at the same pace as usual.

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  3. Chris,

    Are the visas exhauted for this fiscal year or or only for the quarter? I keep hearing about the visa allotment per quarter rathe than the year. Does this mean we will see new visas allocated from April?

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  4. @WiseIndian:
    The visas aren't exhausted for the quarter. If they were exhausted the DOS Visa Bulletin would list the Priority Date as "U" for "Unavailable".

    In order to insure a steady supply of visas, the DOS limits the number of visas in any quarter. The reality is that we rarely see the "U" designation at the end of the quarter. We do sometimes see the "U" in September, which is the last month of the fourth quarter, i.e. the end of the US fiscal year.

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    Replies
    1. Thanks Chris. So does this mean that starting next quarter there will be visas available for all or for only applicants till Aug 2007.

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  5. My sense is that the PD will stay approx Aug 07 until the end of the fiscal year (Sept 30) at which point it will again move ahead.

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