The Department of State published its Visa Bulletin for July 2007 on June 13. It announced that employment-based immigration visa numbers were available for all chargeability areas and all categories, except for unskilled workers. This new progress ignited new hopes for tens of thousands people who wanted to apply for green cards but could not because of the immigration retrogression in the past two years. Potential applicants and their attorneys worked hard in the past two weeks to prepare petitions with a plan to file their cases early in July.
However, the Department of State released a revision of the Visa Bulletin for July 2007 on Monday July 02, 2007. It announced that immigrant visa numbers of this year for all employment-based categories had been used and the USCIS would not accept any new I-485 filings until October 1, 2007, when the visa numbers for the fiscal year of 2008 become available.
Anger, frustration, disbelief, and complaints plagued the tens of thousands of people who planned to file their I-485 petitions in July. Our immigration law firm was also extremely frustrated by the unexpected change in the situation. Our attorneys and supporting professionals worked very hard in the past two weeks to help our clients to expedite the preparation of their cases. We filed around 100 I-485 cases on Saturday, June 30 for delivery on Monday, July 2, the first business day of July. Unfortunately, these cases will be returned by USCIS too. This unexpected action of the federal government is shocking and disturbing to all of us.
Now, let’s calm down and contemplate the whole event, and what we can learn from this experience. As reflected by the series of events that occurred this year, if there is no change in immigration law, immigrants are facing more and more pressure in the road to work legally and eventually permanently reside in this country. There is too much uncertainty and unpredictability in immigration policies and regulations.
On April 1, 2007, 65,000 regular H-1B caps were exhausted on the first day when USCIS started accepting petitions. Then, on April 30, 2007, the 20000 H-1B caps for foreign workers who have earned a master’s degree or other advanced degree from a U.S. institution of higher education ran out too. Many qualified workers had to give up their jobs and struggle to maintain legal non-immigrant status.
On May 29, 2007, USCIS announced a significant fee increases starting July 30, 2007. This fee increase will add substantial financial burdens on applicants after the effective date. The application fee for I-140 petition has been adjusted from $195 to $475, and the application fee for I-485 has been adjusted from $325 to $1010 (including biometrics fee, EAD, and Advance Parole) for adults and $600 for those under 14.
On May 17, 2007, Department of Labor determined to terminate the practice of substituting beneficiaries in labor certification cases starting from July 17, 2007. Premium Processing service was temporarily suspended from July 2 to August 1. All these changes are unpredictable and unfavorable to applicants.
The changes in the Visa Bulletin are even more unpredictable. On June 13, 2007, the Department of State announced that visa numbers were available to almost all employment based immigration categories. However, the door was suddenly slammed on the first business day of July. Actually, it’s almost impossible to predict the next move the Visa Bulletin will make, especially since noone expected this to happen.
Looking back at the visa bulletin history, we may see its wild swings. In October 2005, the Visa Bulletin retrogressed for 5 years. Then, from October 2005 to July 2006, there was big progress in immigration laws. For example, Cut-off dates for China EB2 moved ahead 5 years within 9 months. Since then, there was 10-months stagnancy. In June 2007, there was another big leap. Cut-off dates of EB2 for both China and India moved ahead more than half a year. Now, not a single visa number is available to all applicants for any country in the next three months!
Now, there is not too much we can do to change the situation about the Visa Bulletin. However, we at Zhang & Associates would like to share some thoughts with you when we face the inconsistent actions from the Department of State.
From this series of events, we can see that Immigration policies can change over time. The Visa bulletin is also unpredictable. Sometimes, favorable changes could happen, but sometimes, unfavorable changes could suddenly occur that might bar one’s road to obtaining a green card. One solution to this problem is for clients to submit their applications as early as possible.
Because Immigration policies may change suddenly, it is pointless for you to try to predict the changes and then bond your actions to them. What you can do is to make yourself ready for filing as soon as possible. Whenever there is an opportunity, such a change in the Visa Bulletin, we can take action right away. Preparation of immigration petitions can never be done overnight. It takes a relatively long period time, as several different parties are involved and we have to prepare many documents. So, we need to make preparations early.
It’s always better to file your immigration petition as early as possible. There is too much uncertainty and unpredictability in the green card application process, like changes of policy, visa number availability, delays, and even errors in USCIS processing. If your immigration petition is filed, you’re in the line for the priority date. If immigration numbers are not available, we can get the I-140 approved first. When immigrant visas retrogress (cut off date applies), the visa number is going to be distributed according to a priority date. The priority date for an alien is established when I-140 is filed (or PERM is filed if through Labor Certification). Filing an I-140 or PERM early can get you an earlier priority date.
Another advantage of filing immigration applications early is that you will have plenty of time to choose the best attorneys. Once the visa numbers became available for almost all EB categories in June 2007, an unprecedented large number of aliens wanted to submit immigration petitions. It is hard to find experienced attorneys to handle their cases. If you file early, you can study a law firm’s work records through all kinds of channels, and see if you would like the firm in the early-stages of communication.
You may have noticed that we suspended case intake in June in order to guarantee the highest quality of service that we can provide to our existing clients. Now, with the rush of filing I-485s behind us, we are providing free evaluations and are taking new cases again.
For the past eleven years, a remark made by Professor Peter Drucker has served as our law firm’s inspiration. He stated that, “The only way to predict your future is simply to create it.” We incorporated his fine words into our company’s website. The fifty-five professionals at Zhang and Associates are committed to help you to create and fulfill your American Dream.
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The attorneys and supporting professionals at Zhang & Associates, P.C. are committed to providing high quality work and professional services to our existing clients. There might be uncertainty in the policies or regulations of USCIS, but we are consistently providing the best service to our clients. When immigrant visas retrogress (cut off date applies), the visa number is going to be distributed according to a priority date. The priority date for an alien is established when I-140 is filed (or PERM is filed if through Labor Certification). So, we urge that those who can file I-140 petition (NIW, EB-1A or EB-1B) to file their I-140 as soon as possible to receive an earlier priority date, and in turn will receive an immigration visa (eligibility to file I-485 application) earlier.
We temporarily suspended case intake in June in order to guarantee the highest of service that we provide to our existing clients. Now, we are providing free green card application evaluations and we are taking new cases again.
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Chicago: 6 E. Monroe St. Suite 602, Chicago, IL 60603
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Tel：1-800-230-7040, 713-771-8433
Email: info@hooyou.com
website：http://www.hooyou.com
(07/05/2007)
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