Green Card & Visa News » Department Of State

May 2012 Visa Bulletin – Retrogression in EB-2 – Predictions Added

Tushar Mathur — Mon, 09 Apr 2012 04:22:00 +0000

The State Department has recently released the May 2012 Visa Bulletin. The following are the highlights:

As predicted by the Department of State, the EB-2 India and China cutoff dates have retrogressed to August 15, 2007, as a result of large number of filings in recent months. No forward movement is expected for these two countries until the October 2012 Visa Bulletin. The USCIS will continue to accept and pre-adjudicate I-485 applications for applicants with current priority dates through the end of April.
There are slow movements for EB-3 categories.
FB-1 China, India and “All Other Countries” all move forward by one (1) month to May 1, 2005.
FB-2A China, India, Philippines and “All Other Countries” all move forward by five (5) weeks to November 15, 2009
FB-2B China, India and “All Other Countries” move forward by five (5) weeks to February 22, 2004.

For the first time, DOS also included specific predictions for the coming months as follows:

VISA AVAILABILITY IN THE COMING MONTHS
FAMILY-sponsored categories (monthly movements) Worldwide dates:
* F1: four to six weeks
* F2A: up to two and one half months
* F2B: three to six weeks
* F3: three to six weeks
* F4: three to five weeks

EMPLOYMENT-based categories (monthly)
EB-1: Current
EB-2:
* Worldwide: Potential need for cut-off date to be established
* China and India: Potentially “Unavailable”
EB-3:
* Worldwide: three to five weeks
* China: up to six weeks
* India: up to two weeks
* Mexico: three to five weeks
* Philippines: three to five weeks
EB-4: Current
EB-5: Current

DOS unable to Issue F, M and J Visas

Tushar Mathur — Mon, 21 Nov 2011 03:57:00 +0000

“The Department of State (DoS) has recently identified difficulties with its Consolidated Consular Database (CCD) communicating with the Student and Exchange Visitor Program’s (SEVP) Student and Exchange Visitor Information System (SEVIS). DoS discovered this issue on November 14, 2011. SEVP and DoS are investigating this issue between CCD and SEVIS to bring about a resolution as quickly as possible. Effective immediately, in order to ensure maximum data integrity and consistency, DoS has temporarily halted the issuance of ALL F, M and J visas at all U.S. Embassies and Consulates. Please note that this may alter prospective students’ or exchange visitors’ travel schedules.”

Source: NAFSA memo to SEVIS Users

Diversity Visa ("Visa Lottery) still available for most countries; deadline is 09/31/2011

Tushar Mathur — Tue, 16 Aug 2011 19:09:00 +0000

The Diversity Visa Program runs on a fiscal year schedule. For DV-2011, September will be the last month for selected applicants to apply for their immigrant visa or adjustment of status. Diversity visas will not be issued to applicants after September 30, 2011. The Department of State reports that visa numbers are still available for most countries. Please see table below.

Region	All DV Chargeability Areas Except Those Listed Separately
AFRICA	CURRENT	Except: Ethiopia 32,700
ASIA	CURRENT
EUROPE	CURRENT	Except: Uzbekistan UNAVAILABLE
NORTH AMERICA (BAHAMAS)	CURRENT
OCEANIA	CURRENT
SOUTH AMERICA, and the CARIBBEAN	CURRENT

EB-2 Advancement in May 2011 Visa Bulletin Expected

Tushar Mathur — Tue, 29 Mar 2011 18:50:00 +0000

AILA has obtained information from Charlie Oppenheim, Chief, Immigrant Visa Control and Reporting Division, U.S. Department of State, that the EB-2 category will likely advance in May’s Visa Bulletin due to the recent decrease in demand for EB-1 visa numbers. According to Mr. Oppenheim, there will be at least 12,000 additional numbers available to the EB-2 category in May. Finally there is some good news for EB-2 India and China.

Seattle Immigration Lawyer | Intro to Getting a Green Card Through Employment

Tushar Mathur — Sat, 09 Oct 2010 06:44:00 +0000

This will be the first of several blog posts covering employment-based immigrant visas—the route to a green card through employment. Only 140,000 immigrant visas are made available per year for immigrants, along with their spouses and children, who wish to immigrate based on their job skills. On top of that, there is a quota that limits every country to seven percent of the available green cards every year. (There is no quota for immediate relatives of U.S. citizens.) And, several categories (known as “preferences”) of employment-based immigrant visa petitions require that the sponsoring employer file a labor certification application with the U.S. Department of Labor (“DOL”) before filing a visa petition. As I will discuss later, some preferences require an employer sponsor while others permit the immigrant to self-petition.

Make no mistake, acquiring permanent residency through a job is a long process—in fact, it often takes years. If your goal is to obtain a green card through your job or offer of employment, there is rarely anything to be gained from waiting to begin the process. An experienced immigration attorney can advise you or your employer, based on your specific circumstances, as to which visa petition to file, where to file (in the U.S. or abroad), on the labor certification process (if applicable), and in designing an immigration strategy to keep you in lawful status throughout the long process, so you remain eligible for a green card.

If the visa preference you are applying under requires labor certification, then this is the first step. Assuming the certification is granted by DOL, the next step is to file the immigrant visa petition with USCIS. Once USCIS approves the immigrant visa petition, the Department of State still must issue an immigrant visa number to you in order for you to qualify to apply to adjust your status to permanent resident. Sometimes it takes years from when USCIS approves your visa petition to when you are issued an immigrant visa number. Recall that, by law, the number of immigrant visas for each country is restricted—thus if your country of origin is one in which there are a lot of other people applying for U.S. immigrant visas then you will be waiting longer. An immigration attorney can advise you on the delays to expect and in formulating a visa strategy.

Also, for some preferences, the availability of an immigrant visa number depends on the priority date. In this context, the priority date is determined by your country of birth and the preference you are applying under. Once your priority date is current, there is no waiting period. For cases where labor certification is required, your priority date is set by that process. For the EB-1/National Interest Waiver preference, the priority date is when the I-140 immigrant worker visa petition was received by USCIS. To check whether your priority date is current, look at the monthly Visa Bulletin issued by the State Department.

Stay tuned for my next few Seattle Immigration Lawyer Blog posts, which will look at labor certification and the different employment visa preferences.

Diversity Visa Lottery- things you must know

Tushar Mathur — Mon, 01 Mar 2010 02:31:14 +0000

There are nearly fifty five thousand individual who applies for permanent residency in United States. There is no guarantee that winning the Diversity Visa Lottery will give you the permanent residence visa. You are required to full fill certain requirements and pass screening test taken by authorities overseeing lottery for green card or Diversity visa lottery.

Diversity visa lottery is also popularly known as Green card Lottery that puts certain requirement before an individual applicant before his/her permanent residency is approved. One such requirement is that person winning the Diversity visa lottery should be able to present his/her confirmation page information. The information required by winner for Green card lottery can be easily obtained from websites. The only constrained is that information available is up to June 30, 2010.

All winning candidate of the diversity visa lottery received notifications and results through individual mails at their mailing address. Normally the winner receives mails between the period of May and June. All notification is done through official government letters and emails are no way used for such notifications. Official government letters holds seal of U.S Department of state Kentucky consular centre. This letter contains the necessary details and direction that helps in supplementing other requirements. Applicants are informed about the other important forms or documents and fees of immigrant application that has to be handed over.

Between the months of October to September, winners of Lottery for green card are issued Visas. It is very important for applicants to obtain their diversity visa or modify status before the end of current fiscal year.

All those who were not lucky enough to qualify for the green cards would not be given any sort of regret notification. For all those unlucky applicants, the E-DV website is now available which helps them in assessing their status online.

So, who all are interested for lottery for Green card, the application process will open on October, 2010. Get ready with your document because you never know you may be the lucky one out of fifty five thousand.

Pandemic Policy in the United States

Tushar Mathur — Tue, 15 Sep 2009 04:19:15 +0000

The under mentioned is in relation to the recent H1N1 virus influenza. The United States government has been ever focused on the health and the well being of the citizens of the United States. The government accepts the fact that there is a huge possibility of the H1N1 virus taking a more ugly shape in the days to come there fore they have already started taking adequate precautions post the declaration of the declaration of the Phase Six Pandemic by the World Health Organization (WHO).

People who are planning to travel to the United States or people already staying in the United States are advised to look in to the websites such as HHS/CDC website, WHO website, and the U.S. Department of State website, to educate themselves before they plan to visit a country that has recorded an out break of the H1N1 virus influenza. This is also referred to as “Swine flu”. The United States government has also requested people to consider cancellation of all trips abroad to ensure that they are not caught up in the pandemic or they are not aiding to spread the same. The US government is currently working of the preparation of vaccine for the 2009 H1N1 Virus.

The United States government has decided to ask the entire US non emergency government officials staying in the regions of the world to come back to the United States while there is local transportation still available.

As far as the issuance of the visas are concerned for the aliens in to the United States territory. They would only be considered post medical verification in to the United States at the point of entry or exit.

As per the US Government the assistance to the private American citizens who remained abroad would certainly be limited. However they would be kept in touch with and they are appealed to understand that in case such Americans are detected and have been detained for such reasons, outside the borders of America, it might not be possible for the American government to claim their immediate return to the United States which could be against the local medical policies. The same would apply to the foreign travelers who would be a suspected H1N1 virus carrier.

However there have been such appeals to citizens from all countries. And the responses have been good as well. The bottom line is to ensure that the pandemic does not take a shape which is uglier than it already is.

Visa Bulletin for Oct 2009

Tushar Mathur — Sun, 13 Sep 2009 05:17:30 +0000

The Visa Bulletin for Oct 2009 has summarized the availability of the number of immigrants during October 2009. As per the same a black and white report would be expected from the consular officers on the qualified applicants. The report is to be send o the United States department of state. I have discussed the same briefly here under and is aimed at benefiting you. Hope the under mentioned would keep you updated on the latest from the United States department of State

The limits for the fiscal year 09, has been fixed as per the provisions of the INA Act (Sec 201). As per the said Immigration and Nationality Act (Sec 201), the annual minimum family sponsored preference limit is 226,000. However as per the same act the Upper limit for the preferred immigrants has been set to a maximum of 7% of the total applications received from the country for the employment based preference and the annual family sponsored preference. However, only 2% has been allotted for the dependent area limit.

The Sec 203 of the Immigration and Nationality Act, defines the preference of the family sponsored preferences as per the under mentioned.

First – The preference would be given to the unmarried children for the citizens and the number stands at 23,400 plus what ever is the surplus from the numbers allotted to the 4^th preference.

Second – The send in the line would be the spouses and children along with the unmarried children of the permanent residents of the United States.

Third – Third in the line comes the children of citizens who are married in different countries and are have been staying there. The upper limit for this category has been fixed at 23400 plus the surplus of the first two preferences.

Fourth – Siblings of adult United State citizens, and the upper limit of this preference e has been capped at 65,000. This category would also include the surplus of the previous 3 preferences.

There has been mentioned some preferences for the employment based immigrations as well.

1. 28.6% of the world wide employment based preference level would be allowed as the first preference.

2. People in profession who holds advanced degree. This category has been capped at the maximum of 28.6% of the world wide employment based preference level.

3. The third category is for the skilled workers and the professionals. Again capped at 28.6% of the world wide employment based preference level.

4. This category is for the special immigrants being capped at 7.1% of the total world wide level.