why Jan 98 for EB3, are there any pending cases before Jan 98?

[boothru]

Wondering why USCIS retrogressed EB3 to Jan 1998? Haven't they processed all pending cases until Jan 2002 last time when they retrogressed to Jan2002? I thought they have cleared all cases until Jan2002 and started moving the date and ended up with July 2002.

If my above understanding is true, what are they going to use the new quota of visa numbers, not for the cases with priority dates after July 2002, where they left last time?

Can some one please clarify?

Rajeev, I would appreciate if could clarify on this?

Thanks

[anands26]

boothru,

That is a great question. They had priority date as June 2002. Shouldn't they have processed all cases till that date? How can they move backwards?

I believe this was done to get Congress' attention. Just like Mayor Nagin of New Orleans got nation's and world's attention by saying thousands were dead due to Katrina. Everyone, including President Bush sprang into action and things got under control. Only a couple of hundred were dead. Things have a way of becoming very bad before becoming good again. Things will be ok soon (3-4 months).

They are releasing 55K Diversity Lottery visas that will come in this pool. Lobbying efforts and letters to members of Congress will likely help.

To quote from 'Cast Away': just stay alive. Who knows what the tide will bring tommorrow. Who knows what the Visa bulletin will bring tommorrow.

[rocky_cool]

Originally Posted by anands26

boothru,

That is a great question. They had priority date as June 2002. Shouldn't they have processed all cases till that date? How can they move backwards?

what the tide will bring tommorrow. Who knows what the Visa bulletin will bring tommorrow.

Lets use a little math here: For example lets say each year for Indians only 10K visa numbers are issued and lets say there are 70K EB3 LCs pending. So to clear all of that it will take 70K/10K = 7 years (which 2005 - 7 = year 1998). So i may be wrong but i think this year 1998 is just a way of saying that it will take 7 years to clear all pending applications, no necessarily that there are still some pending LCs from the year 1998. But yeah, if they do use the UNUSED visa numbers, then this should improve. Any comments?

[chava45]

Yes , INS must have cleared the cased filed before Jan 2002. But Visas numbers for EB3 were totally unavailable for the last quarted of 2005. During the last quarter, DOL might have cleared the labor certifications filed in the year 1998 or before. If that is the case, INS will not have any option other than moving backward, instead of forward.

Srini

[chava45]

The following URL shows that no labor petition from 1998 are there at backlog center
http://www.ows.doleta.gov/foreign/do...e_manifest.xls

I don't know why INS moved the cut off dates to 1998
Thanks
Srini

[velailla]

California does show dates from 1997 and Texas shows dates from late 1998.
However I don't think this is the reason for EB3 moving to 1998. DOL just don't want to issue anymore GC for anyone else except Schedule A applicants. As per the ruling Schedule A applicants will use general quota of EB3 visa numbers before using the specially alloted 50K visa numbers. Unless that change due to some new law enactment the PD is going to be stagnent where it is now.

Originally Posted by chava45

The following URL shows that no labor petition from 1998 are there at backlog center
http://www.ows.doleta.gov/foreign/do...e_manifest.xls

I don't know why INS moved the cut off dates to 1998
Thanks
Srini