12/29/2006: Upcoming Phase III Bi-Specialization Jurisdictions
Information indicates that USCIS is going through the draft of Phase III Bi-Specialization regulation for coordination and this regulation may be released sooner or later, probably early next year.
- The Phase III Bi-Specialization appears to form two pairs of Service Centers. In each pair, one Service Center will receive and process all the nonimmigrant petitions and applications within the pair and the second Service Center will receive and process all the immigrant petitions and applications with some possible variations and exceptions. One pair is CSC-NSC and the other pair is VSC-TSC. In the Pair I, nonimmigrant proceedings will be handled by CSC and immigrant proceedings will be handled by NSC. In the Pair II, nonimmigrant proceedings will be handled by VSC and immigrant proceedings will be handled by TSC. The list of the states that fall under each pair will be as follows:
Pair I (CSC-NSC)
Alaska, Arizona, California, Colorado, Guam, Hawaii, Idaho, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Michigan, Minnesota, Montana, Nebraska, Nevada, North Dakota, Ohio, Oregon, South Dakota, Utah, Washington, Wisconsin, Wyoming
Pair II (VSC-TSC)
Alabama, Arkansas, Connecticut, Delaware, Washington, D.C., Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Mississippi, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, North Carolina, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania, Puertop Rico, Rhode Island, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, Vermont, Virginia, Virgin Islands, West Virginia
- Currently the immigrant proceedings (I-140, I-485, etc) are filed with the NSC and the cases are split between the NSC and TSC internally regardless of the territorial jurisdiction. On the other hands, the nonimmigrant proceedings (I-129, I-539, etc) are filed with the VSC and the cases are split between the VSC and CSC internally regardless of the territorial jurisdiction. Accordingly, once the Phase III is launched, the pair of one's case (both immigrant and nonimmigrant) will be determined by the location rather than by the type of cases. Then, within the pair, nonimmigrant cases will be filed with one of the Service Centers within the pair and immigrant cases will be filed with another Service Center within the pair.
The details have yet to be released in the form of a federal register, but the basic skeleton of the structure is likely to follow the foregoing description. Please stay tuned to this web site for the development of this news.