News Update - July 17, 2007U.S.C.I.S. Relents and will Accept EB-1 to EB-3 I-485 Filings for the Next 30 DaysU.S.C.I.S. announced on July 17, 2007 that it will accept employment based applications to adjust status for employment based categories EB-1 through EB-3 until August 17, 2007, at the current fees. This move was made in reaction to withering criticism of the agency for its transparent attempt to grab huge sums of money through artificially exhausting visa numbers in these categories because its large fee hikes did not come into effect until July 30th and the first visa bulletin for July which opened the employment categories would have allowed many aliens to file under the current fees. Emilio Gonzalez, the Director of U.S.C.I.S., stated that the public reaction made it clear that the federal government's management of the process needed further review. Applicants in these classes will now have a full 30 days to gather documentation, take medical examinations, and submit proper applications to the agency.
† 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 © 2007 Alan Lee, Esq.
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Copyright © 2003-2012 Alan Lee,
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