News Updates
EB-2 and EB-3 Cutoff Dates Expected to Move Slowly In the Upcoming Months
October 2010- The Immigration and Nationality Act sets limits on how many green card visas may be issued each Fiscal Year (October 1 through September 30) in all immigrant visa categories except the family-based category of immediate relatives. In addition, in the employment-based area, nationals of each country may obtain immigrant visas (i.e., a green card), in different preference categories (i.e., EB-1, EB-2, EB-3). The law further provides that no one country may have more than a specific percentage of the total number of visas available annually. If these limits are exceeded in a particular category, for a particular nationality, a waiting list is created and applicants are placed on the list according to the date of their case filing. This date is called a "Priority Date." The priority date is the single, most important, factor in the overall processing time of any immigration case.
Charles Oppenheim, Chief of the Visa Control and Reporting Division at the U.S. Department of State, determines the cutoff dates each month for the State Department's Visa Bulletin which is published monthly. Mr. Oppenheim reported the following to the American Immigration Lawyers Association's Washington, D.C. Chapter Meeting on September 22, 2010:
Employment-Based Classifications
Visas in the EB-2 and EB-3 categories are oversubscribed
USCIS processes 90% of employment-based immigration cases through adjustment of status. Beginning in early 2008, Service Centers started to "pre-adjudicate" cases and request visa numbers through the Department of State's Immigrant Visa Allocation Management System (IVAMS). Service Centers and consular posts are requesting more employment-based visa numbers than previously -experienced in some categories. Many beneficiaries in the EB-2 and EB-3 categories may have been single when their petitions were filed, but they are now married and have children when their priority dates are becoming current. On average, each immigrant visa case requires 2.5 visa numbers, whereas in the past it was closer to one immigrant in each employment-based petition.
Many EB-3 beneficiaries from India and China are now eligible for and applying under the EB-2 category. This trend has –increased the demand for visa numbers allocated to the EB-2 category for Indian and Chinese nationals. Mr. Oppenheim does not expect priority dates in the EB-3 category for Indian and Chinese nationals to advance at a pace greater than that experienced during FY-2010.
Mr. Oppenheim made the following short-term predictions with regard to the movement of employment-based priority dates:
EB-2 and EB-3, China These two categories are expected to move slowly over the next few months – by one or two weeks at a time for the next few Visa Bulletins.
EB-2, India This category is expected to remain unchanged or to move very slowly forward (by a week or so). This is mainly a result of EB-3 Indian applicants (there are approximately 60,000 pending cases) “porting” their priority dates into the EB--2 category and are thus taking visa numbers.
EB-3, India Similarly, this category is expected to move very slowly over the next few Visa Bulletins — perhaps by one or two weeks at a time.
EB-3 Rest of World (ROW) This category is expected to move slightly forward or to remain unchanged in the November 2010 Visa Bulletin due to the high number of applications waiting for a visa number in this category.
E-4 Special Immigrant Religious Workers may have cut off dates by year's end.
EW has such a small number of visas (5,000 per year) that it will advance very slowly. As with those in the EB--3 category, many of these cases are at the District Offices, so Mr. Oppenheim does not know the numbers until after moving the cut-off forward.
For details on the immigrant visa quota system and for the current priority dates (November Visa Bulletin was just released), please see the monthly State Department Visa Bulletin.
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