News Update - March 1, 2008

By Alan Lee, Esq.^†‡

Employment Based Cases Show Rapid Advances for March - Department of State Visa Office Issues a Note of Caution

Applicants were pleasantly surprised by the March 2008 visa bulletin which showed rapid advance in the employment based (EB) categories, especially the EB-3 category (bachelor's degreed or 2 years experience required cases) which moved from November 1, 2002, to January 1, 2005. For China born, the category advanced from November 15, 2001 to December 1, 2002, an advance of over one year. China's EB-2 (advanced degreed or exceptional ability required cases) moved 11 months from January 1, 2003, to December 1, 2003. The Other Worker (EW) category advanced from October 1, 2001, to January 1, 2002, worldwide including China. For India born, however, the EB-2 remains unavailable; and EB-3 only advanced to August 1, 2001.

In discussing the advances, the State Department Visa Office commented that advancement of the cutoff dates at this time should prevent a situation later in the fiscal year where there are large numbers of numbers available but not enough time to use them. The Visa Office stated that "If the expected increase in CIS number use materializes, future cutoff date movements could slow or stop."

That caution may be appropriate as U.S.C.I.S. recently published a memorandum on February 4, 2008, that adjustment of status cases which had been pending 180 days that were otherwise approvable except for name check clearance, can now be approved. Although not broken down into categories, the U.S.C.I.S. Ombudsman's 2007 annual report disclosed that as of May 2007, the agency had 329,160 FBI name check cases pending. U.S.C.I.S. recently confirmed that its service centers are conducting sweeps for cases that can be approved at this time. In the February 20, 2008, Questions and Answers which appeared on the U.S.C.I.S. website and were then temporarily withdrawn, the Service stated that it was currently aware of approximately 47,000 I-485 applications that were affected by the policy modification, a seemingly optimistic low number.

† The author is a 26+ year practitioner of immigration law based in New York City. He was awarded the Sidney A. Levine prize for best legal writing at the Cleveland-Marshall College of Law in 1977 and has written extensively on immigration over the past years for the ethnic newspapers, World Journal, Sing Tao, Pakistan Calling, Muhasha and OCS. He has testified as an expert on immigration in civil court proceedings and was recognized by the Taiwan government in 1985 for his work protecting human rights. His article, "The Bush Temporary Worker Proposal and Comparative Pending Legislation: an Analysis" was Interpreter Releases' cover display article at the American Immigration Lawyers Association annual conference in 2004, and his victory in the Second Circuit Court of Appeals in a case of first impression nationwide, Firstland International v. INS, successfully challenged INS' policy of over 40 years of revoking approved immigrant visa petitions under a nebulous standard of proof. Its value as precedent, however, was short-lived as it was specifically targeted by the Administration in the Intelligence Reform Act of 2004.

‡ This article © 2008 Alan Lee, Esq.

Copyright © 2003-2012 Alan Lee, Esq.
The information provided here is of a general nature and may not apply to any particular set of facts or circumstances. It should not be construed as legal advice and does not constitute an engagement of the Law Office of Alan Lee or establish an attorney-client relationship.