Inquiry about my mother in law's E3 visa application

[jryangahoy]

I would just like to inquire something about my mother in law's E3 visa application. She is a nurse at home. The other day, she asked me to inquire about her visa at USCIS. I found out that her visa was already approved last Dec. 26, 2006. I told her about it and asked why she was not able to have an interview at the US Embassy at Manila. She said that it was because during that time, when the US government stopped hiring foreign nurses because of the recession.

While I was searching thru the net, I came across of your site and I was thinking that maybe you can answer some of my questions.

If her NOA was approved that year I believe it would already be expired by this time. When I called an aunt, she said that there was truly a backlog of the visas and the USCIS just started processing those that are issued by August, 2006.

How does it work.?.Can the NOA still be used even if it was approved about 6 years ago.?..Please tell me more about it...

Thank you so much...

[JustBeachyNurse, LPN]

I'm sorry but we cannot advise you on specific immigration matters. You need to speak with the USCIS, qualified immigration lawyer, or qualified immigration consultant about your mother-in-law's situation. Are you certain it was a visa approval and not that the NOA was notification of application acceptance not approval (i.e. issue of a priority date)? If she applied in 2006 she is likely affected by retrogression and the 2006 date is more likely a priority date not a date a visa was issued.

Information about retrogression: USCIS - Visa Retrogression

[fjellgren]

I don't think any visa has been approved based on your statement above. You may be confusing an approved I-140 for a visa. An approved I-140 does not grant any visa status to anyone. It is merely an approval of her green card application. Once approved of I-140 (to which NOA's are granted, as with other visas), a person is given a certain priority date which puts them in line until green card numbers become available.

As of now, the Philippine 'pool' backlog is stuck at people with priority date of Aug. 1, 2006. Your mom's priority date of Dec. 26, 2006 isn't that far behind so just hope and pray that it eases up pretty soon.