When will Adjusment of Status (AOS) be allowed again?

[lawrence01]

There were 300,000 AOS that were filed in July-Aug. 2007 and these were allowed even if there were really no visa numbers left and these were filed before the start of the new fiscal year (Oct. 1 of every year) and there are only 140,000 visa per year currently on EB3.

What does this mean? It means there are already 300k ++ applications that are already waiting on the sideline even before visas are to be made available. That is more than 2 years worth of visa numbers waiting.

There were also quite a few I-140 petitions that were filed in July, w/c explains the backlog in processing the the I-140.

What does these all mean? It means both future AOS and CP applicants are affected. Why so? The first step common for both routes is the I-140 petition and because there is an anticipated I-140 processing backlog, both routes will be longer for future filers. Both the CA and VT service centers are now activated to help out on the processing of both I-140 (petition) and I-485 (AOS).

When will AOS be allowed again? In normal circumstances, it is only allowed if the Visa Category is "Current" or in-status. This means that all other applications before hand should have been adjudicated before it becomes current. So, in under normal circumstances, USCIS would have to wait for all 300k visa applications to be adjudicated before they open it up again. Opening up before they finish the backlog would only mean more backlog and more backlog means longer retrogression and no body wants this happening.

How long will USCIS adjudicate all 300k applications? If the visa cap would still be 140,000 a year then it's logical to say that it would take at least 2 years before they finish up all 300k. These means AOS would not be allowed for quite a long time. It would be at least two years unless the visa cap increases significantly or some other legislation improves things happens but there are none so far.

How about CP? Those who have not yet filed their I-140 petition (1st step) would mean longer wait time for I-140 petition since there is also a backlog for I-140s and then a longer wait time before NVC will request the Visa Fee Bill and DS-230 forms (packet 3). For CP, cases only gets forwarded to NVC if the I-140 petition was approved (packet 2) and NVC now only requests these things to be submitted if there are actually visas available. If there are no visas available they will not send anything. But there will be 140,000 new visas to be made available this Oct. right? Yes, that is correct but these 140,000 is shared by all countries and no one country will get more than 10,000. So its really just 10,000 visas per country that is being contested and these 10,00 already accounts for the family members of each applicant. This is not 1 visa per applicant. If an applicant has 3 dependents then 4 visa numbers are allocated for that applicant and is taken from the 10,000. This mean if one nurse has an ave. of 3 dependents that makes 4 visa numbers each and that leaves only 2,500 applicants w/ 3 dependents to fully use the 10,000 visa numbers for the entire year. Also, who gets the first crack? The one with the older or earlier Priority Date will get the visas first. First come, first served. That is what the Priority Date is for. Do I have a chance if I file now? There are already hundreds-to-thousands already waiting before you even filed for anything. Those waiting before you are not even sure if they will get a visa allocated for them and these are applicants that are already at the latter stages of the process, what more for someone who will just start the whole process.

[suzanne4, RN]

Not all countries get the 10,000, and it is actually less than the full 10,000 for the larger countries. And that is not just for nurses, but those under other professions that also qualify for the EB-3 category.

And the October Visa Bulletin has already been released, notice that there are no areas that are current. If there were, then it would have been documented there as it has been in the past.

There are many more waiting from all over the world than there are visas available in the first place. Sure there are more from the PIC countries and Mexico, and they get the higher number of visas for their country, but it is still less than the 10,000 for each of those.

And as Lawrence has explained, dependents count in that number. Example, remember when 50,000 visas were recapped several years ago and under the Schedule A? Many got excited that so many nurses would be able to get to the US, but the fact was less than 17,000 went to nurses. The spouses and children were included in that number as well.

We are not posting this to be mean, but to make sure that the correct information is out there, not what some of you are being told by your agenciesd/employers or even some attorneys that do not deal with nurses.

Please be careful and safe.