I am sure that many of you do not want to hear this. But it is the actual truth. There still is no special schedule for nurses, and the Schedule A is not included in the Visa Bulletin.
That the dates are current for the month of July does not state that it is over. There is a huge number of applicants waiting for the green card, in addition to nurses, and they have been waiting as well. Remember that most that came to the US under the H1-B visa, are also included with the EB-3 caseload. And many of their attorneys are much faster at getting things done. Example: When the window opened for petitions to be submitted in April for the October 2007 H1-B visas, there were more than a 150,000 submitted in less than one day. And they were gone.
Not trying to burst any bubble, but trying to be honest on this. There are only so many visas available per year, never unlimited number. And this Bulletin does not go into effect until July 1, 2007. And those dates are only for that month and if you notice there is also mention that if the visas get used up that are there, then the dates will not remain in effect all month.
For those of you that got stopped in the processing just before your interview, this will be very beneficial for you. If your DS-230 has been approved and accepted, then this can be beneficial to you. For those that are just starting the process, remember you at the mercy of your agency and attorney and how fast that they will do things. We have seen multiple posts over the years of mistakes made with petitions that delayed things for quite a period of time. There is also a considerable raise in immigration fees going into affect at the end of July that will delay things for some people as the agencies are going to be holding back on paying of fees.
Those that have been paying their own way will find that they may get thru faster.
So please, do not make final plans to leave for the US until you actually have an interview date given to you. We saw what happened last fall to quite a few of you here.
Until there is another Schedule in place for nurses, the retrogression will not be over. Just an open window in the scheme of things, but definitely not over. Look at what happened even last month when the dates were moved up for the PD, you did not see a significant movement of anything. When money is needed to be paid by the agencies, everything drops to a crawl.
