USCIS received 300,000 AOS applications for July, 2007

Published

U.S. Agency Is Swamped by Requests for Visas

By JULIA PRESTON

Published: August 18, 2007

Immigration authorities have received about 300,000 applications for high-skilled-employment visas since July 1, federal officials said yesterday, a deluge unleashed after the federal government first said it would not accept any applications for those visas during July and then reversed course.

Citizenship and Immigration Services, the federal agency, was still receiving applications for employment visas yesterday, the last day of a special period it announced on July 17 for immigrants with professional skills to file petitions for permanent residence visas, known as green cards. As a result, the total tally of applications received in the last six weeks was not available.

The agency admitted it was swamped by the applications it had already received, which was more than double the annual limit of 140,000 employment visas.

According to official figures, in the three months before July the agency received an average of 54,700 applications a month for all green cards, including employment visas and those based on family ties. Applications were already surging then as foreigners sought to file papers before higher processing fees took effect on July 30.

“That is a fantastically high number,” said Carl Shusterman, an immigration lawyer in Los Angeles. Mr. Shusterman said he thought 300,000 was the highest number of employment applications the immigration agency had received in the 31 years he had practiced immigration law.

*Reference:

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/08/18/us/18visa.html

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And exacly what I have stated all along, if the requirements for residency are not met, the petition is going to get denied. And the US government keeps the money that was paid.

There were more than 2 times the number of visas that are available per year, so do not think that the US government is going to approve all of these. Same thing happened when the H1-B visa hunting season opened in April, they had more than 2 x the number of visas that they issue, so many are getting denied thru that.

Just because a petition got thru and was accepted, does not mean that it will be approved. This is what many of you need to concern yourselves with, especially those that entered the US in July for the purpose of staying. Just not going to happen.

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And exacly what I have stated all along, if the requirements for residency are not met, the petition is going to get denied. And the US government keeps the money that was paid.

There were more than 2 times the number of visas that are available per year, so do not think that the US government is going to approve all of these. Same thing happened when the H1-B visa hunting season opened in April, they had more than 2 x the number of visas that they issue, so many are getting denied thru that.

Just because a petition got thru and was accepted, does not mean that it will be approved. This is what many of you need to concern yourselves with, especially those that entered the US in July for the purpose of staying. Just not going to happen.

Are you saying that some of the petitions will be denied just because there are too many of them filed together? It looks to me that those who meet all requirements for residency would be approved in time. And those who are not would be denied no matter when they were filed.

Of cause I am not an expert.

Good for the people who have been waiting a lot of time for this opportunity and were able to file for AOS.

If there will be no other legislation (and so far there is non) we all are going to wait a very long time. Not sure what is worse the AOS or the CP for that matter.

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There are many of those that have been submitted that do not meet the residency requirements. The ones that will be greatly affected are those that came here on the tourist visa with the idea of staying. And there have been quite a few that flew over the last week of June, or the first week of July and expected to be able to get thru with this. Just is not going to happen. Proof is on them to prove that they did not have dual intent. And those are at the top of the list to get denied. Those that were here on other visas and here for several years, should have no problem, but it is going to be a lenghy stay before getting the green card.

Remember that all of these were submitted when there were no visas available. And there were some attornies complaining that they just had clients that flew in to get this done. But they are forgetting that the residency requirement pertains to all, and if not here the length of time needed, then the petition will get denied. Also we have seen some attorneys filing for people that were out of the US for the summer, they do not meet the requirements, and they do not have a current visa as the I-94 gets cancelled when you depart the US.

For those doing things up front and legal, not a problem at all. But for those that tried to sneak in ahead of everyone else that has been patiently waiting, not a good thing at all.

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Just to clear up things:

For those of you that were in the US on another visa, and could finally get the I-485 submitted, then great. For those of you on the tourist visa that are trying to get approval, it is going to be quite hard for you.

What happened last year, happened then; and things are very different in the world of immigration this year.

And for those that did not have completed files when the petitions were submitted, USCIS already came out with a statement that they would return any that were not complete from the beginning. In the past, they asked for additional information and kept your file open, but that is not the case any longer.

Remember that they were forced to accept petitions when they did not have any, so just because they accepted them, does not mean that they are going to be approved. For those that did things correctly, you can rest easily. For those of you that did not, you are going to have many sleepless nights.

Remember that if you were on the tourist visa, and you get denied; you must leave the US by the time in the letter, there is no grounds for appeal with this.

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When the H1-B petitions were submitted in April, there were 150,000 submitted in only a few hours; but only 65,000 visas. So many of those got denied as well.

There is nothing guaranteed that all petitions will be approved, and that has never been written anywhere. Some attorneys would like you to believe that, but it is not the actual fact.

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When the H1-B petitions were submitted in April, there were 150,000 submitted in only a few hours; but only 65,000 visas. So many of those got denied as well.

There is nothing guaranteed that all petitions will be approved, and that has never been written anywhere. Some attorneys would like you to believe that, but it is not the actual fact.

those who were not given because lack of h1b visas, it was returned. then i believe same thing will happen..next year the applications will be raffled.

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those who were not given because lack of h1b visas, it was returned. then i believe same thing will happen..next year the applications will be raffled.

It would really be interesting how USCIS will fix this. The 300,000 applications is already good for 2 fiscal years and then some.

The next fiscal year hasn't even started yet and they were already forced to accept applications even though there aren't really no visa numbers left to begin with.

I don't know if the lottery-style of picking can be used here as they have done on the H1Bs since all 300,000 applications were actually filed on dates that there aren't suppose to be any visa numbers left in the first place. It may just come down to USCIS just using their discretion to deny and approve certain cases. There will be no more legalities as they have accepted all applications anyway and after accepting the applications, it is now their prerogative and jurisdiction to do as they wish with it and this time, no outside force may interfere anymore and tell them what to do.

It will be really interesting.

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those who were not given because lack of h1b visas, it was returned. then i believe same thing will happen..next year the applications will be raffled.

Whether they are returned or denied, the issue is that if on a tourist visa, the person will not be able to remain in the US. That is the point that I am trying to make.

Those applications for the H1-b, in most cases, the one being petitioned was out of the US. For the AOS, they had to be in the US. So therefore, not all will be able to remain, especially those that did not meet residency requirements, and there were quite a few of those.

And there is also a significant difference between the two: The H1-B met their quota in just a few hours; the I-485 was forced to be accepted when there were no visas available and for a solid month plus. When you force someone to do something that they do not want to do, they can rebel. They do not have to approve them if they do not have everything included and everything there perfectly. Anything missing, and it is returned. No questions asked, no time to submit anything additional. There are only 140,000 green cards available per entire year for those under the EB-3 category, yet they had 300,000 petitions submitted. What happens to all that are waiting for the CP processing.

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H1-B applications are submitted two times per year, April and October.

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Hi Suzanne4,

I am international nurse from India.Now I live here(MA,USA) with my husband with F2 visa.I took NCLEX but did not pass, And will take this exam again.In the mean time before passing the exam can I apply for my adjustment of status so that I can get any temporary work permit here?

Thanks

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WOw thats a lot of applications... keep in mind though that not all of the 300,000 are nursing applications. Hope all the valid nurse appications be approved, some cities here in the US are in critical need for nurses.

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