Labor Immigration Law

The September 2008 Visa Bulletin has been released by the Department of State.  It brings a mix of good and bad news.

The good news for EB-2 applicants from India and China continues this month as well - the dates for EB-2 India and EB-2 China moved by two months, from June 1, 2006, to August 1, 2006.  There are no other changes to the employment-based dates.

However, there were some bad news for employment-based applicants in the EB-3 category.  Earlier in July, when the EB-3 category became “Unavailable” the comment was that it is expected that in October, upon the beginning of the new fiscal year, the EB-3 dates would return to their June 2008 values.  However, the State Department has revised this expectation and has indicated “the that continued heavy demand in those categories may require the establishment of cut-off dates which are earlier than those which had applied in June. ” Although this backward movement is not certain yet, a formal decision is expected in September.

We wrote on Friday about the anticipated significant forward movement for EB-2 India.  The August 2008 Visa Bulletin is out now and it confirms our expectation.  In addition, EB-2 China has also moved forward significantly.  Both EB-2 India and China have a date of June 1, 2006 (from April 2004 previously).

Another important update related to the visa bulletin is the unavailability of visas in the “Other Workers” category - they are now unavailable (from April 2003 previously).  The visa bulletin explains that such unavailability is due to the numbers for the “Other Workers” category reaching their annual numerical limit.  It is expected that once the FY 2009 begins in October, the dates should return to April 2003.

The August 2008 Visa Bulletin is about to be released and we have reliable (based on past experience) information that EB-2 India will move forward by more than two years - from April 2004 to June 2006.

This is excellent news for applicants in the EB-2 India category.  Stay tuned as we wil update this post with more information as the official State Department Visa Bulletin is distributed.

BREAKING NEWS

EB-3 Unavailable.  The July 2008 Visa Bulletin is out.  As we predicted in May, the Employment Based Third Category (EB-3) is now unavailable until the end of the Fiscal Year in October.   This means that no EB-3 cases will be approved until at least October.  It is expected that in October the EB-3 priority dates will return to their May/June level.

Good news for EB-2 India and China.   The July 2008 Visa Bulletin, however, brings good news to EB-2 applicants from India and China.  According to Section 202(a)(5) of the Immigration and Nationality Act, the total demand for EB-2 visas from countries other than India and China has been insufficient to meet the number of available visas; therefore, such estimated excess numbers have been allocated to EB-2 India and China.  It is expected that because Indian nationals constitute a larger proportion of the currently pending EB-2 cases, most of the newly available EB-2 visas will go to Indian nationals.

The June 2008 Bulletin is out.  Among the employment-based visa numbers, there is a slight forward movement in the EB-2 category for China and India, by about 3 months, from January 2004 to April 2004.

Unfortunately, there was no movement in the EB-3 category for any country.  There were more bad news for EB-3 applicants.  According to the June 2008 Visa Bulletin, the annual cap for EB-3 cases is expected to be reached in June; as a result, the EB-3 category is likely to experience retrogressions or visa unavailability beginning in July (stay tuned for the July 2008 Visa Bulletin in mid-June).  It is expected that in October, upon the start of the new fiscal year, the cut-off dates would recover to their present date.

Read the full June 2008 Visa Bulletin.

The House Subcommittee on Immigration, Citizenship, Refugess, Border Security and International Law held a hearing yesterday, April 30, 2008, on the topic of “Wasted Visas, Growing Backlogs.”

Michael Yates, the USCIS Associate Director for Domestic Operations testified in front of the Committee and although scheduling conflict did not permit our firm to be present at the hearing, we have reviewed the text of Yates’ prepared statement.

Unfortunately for us and our clients, Yates’ prepared statement does not seem to provide much forward-looking insight into the operations of USCIS.  The statement goes to great lengths to explain the visa categories, the processes for obtaining legal permanent residency and the historic numbers, but does little to show the millions of foreigners with backlogged pending applications how and when will the backlog be cleared and the process streamlined.

For completion, we are including the prepared statement of Stephen A. Edson, Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for Visa Servivce, U.S. Department of State.  Mr. Edson’s statement explains how the State Department allocates visa numbers and praises the State Department’s work in allocating the visa numbers so that close to 100% of the available visas in each Fiscal Year are used. 

The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has released a report about the green cards obtained by foreign nationals during 2007. The report provides breakdown by preference category and sub-category, by type of petition, by country of origin, and by U.S. state of residence.

In addition, the report provides an interesting historical distribution analysis of the number of green cards given out since 1900.

The report can be found here and the graphs with the data can be found here.

The May 2008 Visa Bulletin is out.  Among the employment-based visa numbers, unfortunately, there was only a slight forward movement for most categories.  The most notable movement was for employment-based third preference category (EB-3) for all countries except China, India, Mexico.  The priority date for such EB-3 workers moved from July 2005 to March 2006.  EB-3 Mexico and EB-3 Philippines moved to July 2002 and March 2006, respectively.

EB-2 China and EB-2 India moved slightly forward; unfortunately this movement was very minor, only by a month, to January 2004 for both.

See the full May 2008 Visa Bulletin.

The State Department just released its April 2008 Visa Bulletin and it brings some good news and relief to EB2 India applicants - the cutoff date for EB2 India has moved from “unavailable” to December 1, 2003.

See the full April 2008 Visa Bulletin.

The March 2008 State Department Visa Bulletin is out.  The most significant development is the EB3 “worldwide” (everyone except from China, India, Mexico and the Philippines) category applicants.

EB3 - Employment-based, Third Preference

The best news is for applicants under the EB3 category.  The cutoff date for EB3 “worldwide” category and the Philippines moved forward significantly, to January 1, 2005, an advance of more than two years.  China moved forward by more than a year, to December 1, 2002.  India moved forward by few months, to August 1, 2001.

EB2 - Employment-based, Second Preference

While EB2 India is still unavailable, EB2 China has moved slightly forward to December 1, 2003.