UPDATE ON JULY VISA AVAILABILITY

The sudden backlog reduction efforts by Citizenship and Immigration Services Offices during the past month have resulted in the use of almost 60,000 Employment numbers. As a result of this unexpected action it has been necessary to make immediate adjustments to several previously announced cut-off dates.  All Citizenship and Immigration Services Offices have been notified of the following:  Effective Monday July 2, 2007 there will be no further authorizations in response to requests for Employment-based preference cases.  All numbers available to these categories under the FY-2007 annual numerical limitation have been made available.

Employment preference numbers will once again be available to these chargeability areas beginning October 1, 2007, under the FY-2008 annual numerical limitation.   Department of State Publication 9514
CA/VO: July 2, 2007  

Visa Bulletin
Number 108
Volume IX
Washington, D.C.

Here are some relevant questions and answers that we prepared for some for our clients:

Q: What happened to the priority dates?

A: Today’s announcement erases, or at least purports to erase, what the Department of State stated on June 13^th concerning the priority dates being current. According to the guidance from today, the priority dates are not current for July. As a matter of fact, the priority dates are “unavailable,” meaning that employment-based adjustments cannot be filed.

Q: How did this happen?

A: The Department of State is telling us that USCIS requested that 60,000 visa numbers be made available for approval in the past few weeks. I do not believe it, nor do I think is it truly possible.

Q: Why did this happen? 

A: Read my first Q&A of today. Money and turf battle between the Department of State and USCIS. At the bottom of all of this is really the money. My cynical mind tells me that USCIS may have put up with the slight from the Department of State to make all the numbers current, only if it had happened a month later so that they could get their hands on additional millions of dollars to be generated by the ridiculously increased fees to come into effect at the end of July.

Q: Lorenzo, the announcement from the Department of State says that numbers will be available once the fiscal year begins on October 1^st. Therefore, should I just wait to file my petition until October 1^st? After all, it is only a few months until October, so why deal with July and face all this uncertainty?

A: Yes, visa numbers may be available as of October 1^st. However, “available” does not equate to “current.” The Department of State may make some numbers available but with the priority dates set at a point where you may still have to wait years to file your Adjustment. That is why I believe that to have a chance at having an Adjustment pending at any time in the near future, it is important to file in July so that there is an opportunity to get relief from a successful outcome in federal court. In other words, if you do not file in July, the reality is that you will probably be once again at the mercy of the slow moving priority dates.

On this point let me make something clear: I believe that making the priority dates current so suddenly was probably a huge blunder on the part of the Department of State. They apparently miscalculated the reaction such a move would bring about from USCIS. Even if it was a tactical and operational blunder, the government needs to live by the rules, just like the rest of us.

Finally, note that many people are choosing to file in July with the hope that the federal courts will step into force the government to accept those petitions that were filed and rejected in July.