June 10, 2009
The Department of State Visa Office expects all 140,000 employment-based immigrant visa numbers to be used in fiscal year 2009, which runs from October 1, 2008 through September 30, 2009. About 90% of all employment-based visa numbers are used by USCIS through the process of deciding adjustment of status applications. The rate at which USCIS adjudicates these applications plays a large part in the determination of cut-off dates. The specific prognosis for each of the five preference categories is as follows. As expected, delays are particularly long for applicants from India and China.
- The EB1 (extraordinary ability/outstanding researcher and professor/multinational manager and executive) category worldwide is expected to remain current (or "available") but with high demand through September 30, 2009.
- The EB1 category for India and China remains current for July 2009, but may be limited with cut-off dates in August or September if demand continues to be heavy.
- The EB2 (professionals holding advanced degrees, or the equivalent, and the national interest waiver category) category worldwide is current for July 2009.
- The EB2 category for India has a cut-off date of January 1, 2000, effective on July 2009. The State Department warns that this category may become unavailable in August or September 2009. With approximately 25,000 cases already reviewed by USCIS and waiting for visa numbers, the State Department expects the waiting time to be measured in years if not decades unless Congress provides legislative relief.
- The EB2 category for China is comparably grim with a January 1, 2000 cut-off date as of July 2009.
- The EB3 (professionals holding BA/BS degrees or workers with 2 years of skilled experience) worldwide category will be unavailable through September 30, 2009. On October 1, 2009, the State Department anticipates that the cut-off date will be March 1, 2003.
- The EB3 category for India, China and Mexico will remain unavailable through September 30, 2009. On October 1, 2009, the State Department estimates that India will have a cut-off date of November 1, 2000; China will be at March 1, 2003; and Mexico, March 1, 2003.
- The EB4 category for religious workers and other special immigrants has surged in FY 2009. While this category will remain current in July 2009, the increased usage in visa numbers means substantially fewer of the unused numbers may be applied to the first and second preference categories. In previous years, these "fall down" numbers allowed the cut-off dates to advance more quickly particularly for India and China.
- The EB5 category for immigrant investors has also seen a dramatic surge, with fewer unused numbers made available to the first and second preference categories.
A link to the Visa Bulletin for July 2009 is provided here: http://www.aila.org/content/default.aspx?docid=29232
