During the annual AILA conference, Mr. Charles Oppenheim of the Department of State Visa Office (he is the person who is largely involved in the movement of visa numbers) provided some thoughts and predictions on the movement of visa numbers for the remainder of the fiscal year 2009 (FY2009 the end of which is September [...]
The May 2009 Visa Bulletin has been released. Unfortunately, and as expected, all EB-3 categories are now “unavailable.” Also, there is no movement in all EB-2 categories. Here is a summary of the May 2009 Visa Bulletin: EB-1 remains current across the board. EB-2 remains unchanged for all categories - EB-2 ROW (Rest of World) is current, [...]
The Department of Homeland Security’s Office of Immigration Statistics has released its annual U.S. Permanent Residents: 2008 report. The report provides a summary of the approvals of the various types of legal permanent resident (LPR) petitions. According to the report, in 2008, a total of 1,107,126 persons became LPRs. Of these, 58% already lived in [...]
We wrote last week about the April 2009 Visa Bulletin and the significant retrogression of the visa numbers in EB-3 Rest of World (ROW) category. It is important to note that the April 2009 Visa Bulletin retrogression for EB-3 will be applied immediately, as opposed to as of April 1, 2009 (see last sentence of [...]
The April 2009 Visa Bulletin has been released. Unfortunately, even though there is some forward movement in some EB categories, the progress is very small and in fact, the dates for some EB-3 categories have retrogressed significantly. EB-1 remains current across the board. EB-2 remains unchanged - EB-2 ROW (Rest of World) is current, EB-2 China remains [...]
We have been receiving calls and emails from employment-based applicants for green card asking us whether they have a second green card process started by a new company. Generally, the inquiries are from EB-3 beneficiaries who are eligible and would like to start an EB-2 application. Most of these inquiries come from individuals from countries [...]
The March 2009 Visa Bulletin has been released. Unfortunately, even though there is some forward movement in some EB categories, the progress is very small. Many important categories have not moved forward at all this month. EB-1 remains current across the board. EB-2 China moves forward by 45 days to February 15, 2005. EB-2 India moves forward [...]
The current Processing Times Report for the Nebraska Service Center (NSC) as of September 30, 2008 indicates that NSC is processing I-140 (EB-3) petitions filed on or before August 2, 2007. However, NSC has indicated that they are still processing cases filed from July 1, 2007 through August 2, 2007, and it will be a [...]
The February 2009 Visa Bulletin is out. It brings some good forward movement for some employment-based categories. Unfortunately, EB-3 ROW and EB-3 India remain unchanged. EB-2 ROW remains current. EB-2 India and EB-2 China both move forward by approximately 6 months. EB-2 India is now at January 1, 2004 while EB-2 China is at January 1, [...]
The January 2009 Visa Bulletin is out. As expected and unfortunately, the forward movement in the employment-based category is very small. EB-2 India has moved a month forward from June 2001 to July 2001. EB-2 China has moved from June 2004 to July 2003. EB-3 India has moved by only 15 days - from October 1, 2001 [...]