EB2 India Priority Dates May Advance to February 2008 this Summer
June 17, 2013 | Tags: EB-2
Every year, as the government's fiscal year ending September 30 comes to a close, we look forward to the expert predictions of Charles Oppenheim, Chief of Visa Control at the Department of State, for what lies in store for the summer months. For years, this senior analyst has been charged with tracking and ensuring that the government does not issue more than the yearly quotas. In the employment sponsored setting, the ceiling remains at 140,000 permanent visas. Each month, Mr. Oppenheim's number crunching gets incorporated into the DOS Visa Bulletin, which lists cut off numbers for various preference categories.
Mr. Oppenheim last week indicated at an industry conference that there may be a 7.5 year leap forward for EB-2 Indian nationals this summer -- and that the priority date cut-off may advance to February 2008 within the next few months. The current cut-off date is September 1, 2004. The news is not so rosy for EB-2 Chinese and EB-3 Indian nationals, however: Mr. Oppenheim predicted that the dates for EB-2 China as well as EB-3 India and China are likely to advance just one to three weeks per month through September 30.
What this means for EB-2 Indian employees:
EB-2 Indian nationals with a priority date earlier than the cut-off date will be eligible to file their adjustment of status applications the following month.
Individuals who have an adjustment of status application already pending, but have been awaiting approval due to priority date retrogression, may expect approval of their cases provided their priority date is earlier than the cut-off date at the time of adjudication.
WSM will be following our normal practice of contacting the USCIS regarding any pending adjustment of status applications for which visa numbers will become available. Typically, the Department of State releases the next month's visa bulletin by the middle of the month prior.
We look forward to sharing Mr. Oppenheim's further analysis when he attends the upcoming American Immigration Lawyers Association national conference in San Francisco in late June and particularly against the backdrop of Congressional Immigration Reform and what that may mean for EB-2 and EB-3 Indian and Chinese nationals in the next two years.
