AOS filers from July 2007

World International

Published

Just thought it might be fun to have a place to check what other AOS filers experiences have been, with this recent group of applications. I filed July 18, 2007 and just had my checks cashed. This part has taken 8 weeks, and I have not received my receipts yet, but think that should be happening soon. Has anyone had similar experiences? I feel lucky, though, that my application was sent to Texas. It has taken me a long time to get a chance to just apply so I feel very fortunate. But know a long wait is in store for a green card. But since my husband was able to file with me at least he will finally be able to work soon. He has not worked for over a year now.

Many of you are forgetting that the recapped visas were used in June and July for those that were under the AOS from last year and were waiting after the retrogression hit. Schedule A has always been under the EB-3 category, it was not something completely separate on its own.

Those that got their green card in the past few months, primarily since June or so, got them from recapped visas. There were no more issued so they had to come from somewhere. And they were used up, same way that those that had interviews for August in some countries, got them cancelled because the recapped visas were gone.

And the bigger picture for you to understand is that there were more than 800,000 petitions that were submitted when you got yours in during the July/August open window of opportunity. There are only 140,000 green cards issued totally per year under the EB-3 category and that includes those under the regular CP processing as well. There are also those that have PD dates of four years ago and have been in the US working under the H1-B category and they will get their green cards first. You are looking at several years to get a green card, provided that you petitions get approved. There is no guarantee being made on anything. And please be aware that just because you go for an initial interview, or get fingerprints done, or even get the EAD; you are not guaranteed that you will get approval. The EAD is issued before any approvals are made. You are fortunate that you will be able to work in the US during this time, but nothing more than that.

Those 13,000 were used for the ones that got their green cards recently in the past few months, including others that were recapped as well. There were about 60,000 plus that were recapped, you may not be aware of that.

Trying to think of what will happen or did not happen, or did happen last year has no bearing on anything anymore, the immigration world of the US has been changed since last year. We do not even expect it to open up for the AOS process for a few years now at least, so consider yourself fortunate that you got your petition in, but be aware that there are not going to be any speedy processes that will get you a green card fast. There were not any visas even available when you submiitted your petitions to begin with. And if you notice that even with the October Bulletin, visas are not current, and they are not current for the November Bulletin that actually was issued more than a week ahead of time because of no visas. And to add to it, October is the beginning of the new fiscal year that makes it even more difficult to even come up with a date that visas will be current as that is when visas are normally released; and they were not.

Sorry to sound rude about this, but be happy that you got a petition submitted in the first place, you are going to be waiting for years to get your green card. There is no sense in dragging up things that happened a year ago, that no longer matters; what happened then no longer exists here in the US.

Up Vote Up Vote ×
Many of you are forgetting that the recapped visas were used in June and July for those that were under the AOS from last year and were waiting after the retrogression hit. Schedule A has always been under the EB-3 category, it was not something completely separate on its own.

.....

too vague and long

Suzanne, did you read my post? Any comments about were 14,363 Schedule "A" visas have gone?

Schedule "A" visas can be used for schedule "A" professionals only and has nothing to do with 800,000 (I doubt it's a correct number) programmers, engineers, etc. submitted their applications in June, July, August 2007. Schedule "A" is a part of EB3. But Schedule "A" category had it's own quota and was listed as a separate category. Open any visa bulletin from June, 2005 to October, 2006 and see it yourself.

Up Vote Up Vote ×
Specializes in Medical and general practice now LTC.
Suzanne, did you read my post? Any comments about were 14,363 Schedule "A" visas have gone?

Schedule "A" visas can be used for schedule "A" professionals only and has nothing to do with 800,000 (I doubt it's a correct number) programmers, engineers, etc. submitted their applications in June, July, August 2007. Schedule "A" is a part of EB3. But Schedule "A" category had it's own quota and was listed as a separate category. Open any visa bulletin from June, 2005 to October, 2006 and see it yourself.

During that period Jun 05 - Oct 06 Schedule A did exist for nurses but since I think it was Feb this year Schedule A for nurses no longer exist, nurses reverted back to just EB3 Oct 06 and have been affected ever since. As far as I am aware schedule A was removed as there was no longer any visas to allocate.

Also to add you give a quote in post 24 of approx 14,000 not used but hard to predict as the 50,000 also included family members and very hard to predict how many family members there where, some people went by them selves where others may easily include 5-6 in the family unit.

Up Vote Up Vote ×

And the bigger picture for you to understand is that there were more than 800,000 petitions that were submitted when you got yours in during the July/August open window of opportunity.

According to USCIS they received 68,498 I-485 applications to adjust status in July 2007 http://www.uscis.gov/files/article/APPLICATIONS%20FOR%20IMMIGRATION%20BENEFITS_July07.pdf

and 116,177 I-485 applications to adjust status in August 2007.

http://www.uscis.gov/files/article/APPLICATIONS%20FOR%20IMMIGRATION%20BENEFITS_Aug07.pdf

184,675 applications to adjust status all together in July/August 2007

including family based cases.

If you find a better source let me know.

Up Vote Up Vote ×
Suzanne, did you read my post? Any comments about were 14,363 Schedule "A" visas have gone?

Schedule "A" visas can be used for schedule "A" professionals only and has nothing to do with 800,000 (I doubt it's a correct number) programmers, engineers, etc. submitted their applications in June, July, August 2007. Schedule "A" is a part of EB3. But Schedule "A" category had it's own quota and was listed as a separate category. Open any visa bulletin from June, 2005 to October, 2006 and see it yourself.

Yes, I did read it and posted to where they have gone. There were over 60,000 recapped visas that were distributed over the past few months, primarily for those that started the AOS process back in 2006 and have been waiting for their visas since then. I am well aware of the statistics, and am aware of what the US State Dept has been doing all along. And just to set the record straight, the Schedule A was not for nurses only, physical therapists were also included with that as we do have a shortage of those as well in the US, and now since the beginning requirement is at least Master's prepared for that field. But none the less, they were under the Schedule A as well as also are required to get a Visa Screen Certificate just like you.

I am not even speaking of the 800,000 plus that just got their petitions submitted; including even you in this number. There were no visas available when these petitions were accepted in the first place, and that was a very well known fact to start off with.

What you are not realizing is that there are still many that started the AOS before the deadline of last October 31 that went thru Nebraska Service Center and still do not have their green cards either at this time. There were over 60,000 that were recapped and used for those that had been in the process since before the retrogression started and received them in June, July and August of this year; that is where they have gone to. And what you are forgetting is that dependents are included with those numbers, they are not for the nurse only. And if you remember back to the end of June/beginning of July when everything blew up about the visas not being available, it was becasue the recapped ones were used to get people that had been waiting thru the system.

And it has been a very well known fact that those that submitted their petitions when there were no visas available is that they would be waiting a few years for the green card, and that it would not be like it was in the past when you got in just about 8 months or so. That no longer exists, and if your attorney did not inform you of this, that is a problem to take up with them. Not here.

I spend hours each day reading and going thru items that have been posted by the US State Dept and discussing it with the immigration attorneys that I routinely consult with. And I stand by what I have written 100%, you do not need to agree with it, but these are the facts. And there are no more recapped visas to be used, the government wanted them used up entirely before this new fiscal year was started, and they have done just that. And actually recapped more than the few that you are talking about, over 4 x that number were assigned.

Up Vote Up Vote ×
According to USCIS they received 68,498 I-485 applications to adjust status in July 2007 http://www.uscis.gov/files/article/APPLICATIONS%20FOR%20IMMIGRATION%20BENEFITS_July07.pdf

and 116,177 I-485 applications to adjust status in August 2007.

http://www.uscis.gov/files/article/APPLICATIONS%20FOR%20IMMIGRATION%20BENEFITS_Aug07.pdf

184,675 applications to adjust status all together in July/August 2007

including family based cases.

If you find a better source let me know.

There was another thread that was started by Lawrence01 giving the specifics as to what was submitted and the breakdown for it. You just need to have a look for it. And his numbers are correct, and were verified as well. Yours do not include those that submitted all petitions including the I-140 during July as well as the dependents and they shoot the number way up as they are part of the 140,000 visas that are issued each year to those under the Eb-3 category.

You do not need to like what we are posting, but the numbers that you have been posting are no longer current, there was later data that came out and Lawrence posted about it.

The fact is that there are no visas available for those that just submitted under the AOS; there are many much further than you that have been waiting, even under the Consular Process as well. And they will get the first crack at any visas, not those that were just submitted when there were no visas available and the US government was forced to accept them. You are entitled to your opinion, and I am entitled to mine.

Please take the time to do some more reading on this forum.

Up Vote Up Vote ×
During that period Jun 05 - Oct 06 Schedule A did exist for nurses but since I think it was Feb this year Schedule A for nurses no longer exist, nurses reverted back to just EB3 Oct 06 and have been affected ever since. As far as I am aware schedule A was removed as there was no longer any visas to allocate.

Also to add you give a quote in post 24 of approx 14,000 not used but hard to predict as the 50,000 also included family members and very hard to predict how many family members there where, some people went by them selves where others may easily include 5-6 in the family unit.

if you follow links in my posts #13 and #24 it will give you detailed statistics about family members that received their visas along with primary applicants. 36,367 visas were isued in FY2005-2006 for schedule "A" applicants including spouses and children. Do you seriously believe that 14,000 visas could be issued in just 2 month if it took a year and a half to issue 36,000 visas in 2005-2006?

And the question is why "schedule A" was not current after Nov 2006 if as of Oct. 1 2006 there were 14,000 unused visas?

Up Vote Up Vote ×
Specializes in Medical and general practice now LTC.

To be honest I am not sure why you are dragging up information which now is of no benefit. What happened last year or the year before has no bearing on what is happening now. Retrogression is in progress and no matter what we say now or stats we look at from previous years are going to make any difference. The US government says there are no visas at the moment. Therefore all we can do now is wait for things to move forward

Up Vote Up Vote ×
There was another thread that was started by Lawrence01 giving the specifics as to what was submitted and the breakdown for it.

"At a recent AILA Conference, Michael Ayetes (USCIS Associate Director, Operations) announced...."

That information is not official. It's not posted anywhere on the official web site.

Dependents file their own I-485. So I don't see why you decided that those were not counted by USCIS?

Up Vote Up Vote ×

If the new numbers for AOS filers is true, that is good news for us nurses...

Up Vote Up Vote ×

What you are not realizing is that there are still many that started the AOS before the deadline of last October 31 that went thru Nebraska Service Center and still do not have their green cards either at this time.

There should be no deadline for schedule "A" if visas are available. They set a deadline based on the prediction that schedule "A" 50,000 limit would be exhausted by Nov. 2006. Schedule "A" quota has nothing to do with annual limits for EB category.

Up Vote Up Vote ×

ei, snowstorm, kindly edit your "Nov. 2007" and "Oct. 2007" in post numbers 31 and 35. I think you are talking about "2006".

Whatever, I still cannot understand your point. Are you saying that there must be Schedule A visas available until this moment? That is not possible because Schedule A visas were available until January. 2007....I guess it was exhausted during that period (Dec. to Jan).

http://travel.state.gov/visa/frvi/bulletin/bulletin_3100.html

And my dear, there were also many plus their dependents who got it through Consular Processing....add that to your equation and there shall be no balance. Do not under-estimate the number of approvals using CP process at that period....we've seen it with our eyes how many nurses were flying to the US with their x-ray results on their hand-carried luggage....

Up Vote Up Vote ×
+ Add a Comment