News Update - November 10, 2011

December 2011 Visa Chart Shows Strong Movement In China And India EB-2 Categories.

The December 2011 visa bulletin showed forward movement in most categories, with the EB-2 (Advanced degree/NIW (National Interest Waiver)) preferences for China and India jumping from 11/1/07 to 3/15/08.  The monthly bulletin was largely in conformance with predictions for the first six months of fiscal year 2012 as stated in the 10/18/11 American Immigration Lawyers Association (AILA) /Department of State (DOS) Liaison Meeting.  DOS predicted three to six weeks monthly movement for the F-1 category of unmarried sons and daughters of U.S. citizens over the age of 21, and that category moved from 7/22/04 to 9/1/04; three to six weeks for the F-2A category of spouses and unmarried children under the age of 21 of green card holders, and the category moved from 2/15/09 to 3/22/09; one or two weeks for the F-2B category of unmarried sons and daughters over the age of 21 of permanent residents, and that preference moved from 8/1/03 to 8/15/03; one or two weeks for the F-3 category for married sons and daughters of U.S. citizens, and that category moved from 9/22/01 to 10/8/01; and up to one month for the F-4 category of siblings of U.S. citizens, and that preference moved from 6/15/00 to 7/15/00.  These family based predictions and results were for all countries of the world other than Mexico and the Philippines. 

For the employment based categories, DOS predicted that the EB-1 category for extraordinary aliens/outstanding professors and researchers/multinational executives and managers would remain current, and it did so; that the EB-2 category would remain current except for China and India, and the form held; and that the EB-3 category would move up to one month except for China only advancing one to three weeks and India one or two weeks.  For December, the EB-3 category for skilled workers or professionals went from 12/22/05 to 1/15/06 worldwide except for China moving from 8/22/04 to 9/8/04 and India from 7/22/02 to 8/1/02.  For the EW-3 category of unskilled workers, the December visa chart showed movement of one-and-a-half months from 11/15/05 to 1/1/06 for all of the world except for China which remained static at 4/22/03 and India which advanced from 6/15/02 to 7/22/02.  DOS predicted that both the EB-4 category for certain religious workers and EB-5 category for immigrant investors would remain current and they did so. 

In looking at the DOS predictions, an important one was that with respect to expected movement for the China and India EB-2 categories, there would be significant advances up to February, but that such movement would not be the norm throughout the fiscal year, and there was a possibility for retrogression of the dates during the summer months.

† The author is a 30+ year practitioner of immigration law based in New York City holding an AV preeminent rating in the Martindale-Hubbell Law Directory and registered in the Bar Register of Preeminent Lawyers. He was also recently named to the New York Super Lawyers list. 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 Interpreter Releases, Immigration Daily, and 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 Bush Administration in the Intelligence Reform Act of 2004.

‡ This article © 2011 Alan Lee, Esq.

Copyright © 2003-2012 Alan Lee, Esq.
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