Pegasus503
Registered Users (C)
TooMuchWorried said:
filing for i-485 means looking to see if visas are available. each month a bulletin is published
http://travel.state.gov/visa/frvi/bulletin/bulletin_1360.html
A priority date is a person's place in line for becoming a permanent resident of the United States. Most green cards are numerically limited, depending on your country of birth, and the employment category by which you are obtaining permanent residence. For the employment based categories, a priority date can be established in one of the following two ways:
1) When your employer submits an application for an alien labor certification on your behalf; or
2) For those categories where no labor certification is required, when you or your employer submits a visa petition (Form I-140) to the INS on your behalf.
per the last bulletin (7th Dec 06)
EB1 is current world wide
"C" means current, i.e., numbers are available for all qualified applicants
EB2 is current for "rest of the world", Mexico & Philippines, China PD 22 Apr 05, India PD 8 Jan 03
EB3 PD for "Rest of the world", China & Philippines is 1 Aug 02. India PD 8 May 01 and Mexico PD 15 May 01
For example My PD date is 25 Nov 02, I am EB3 and "rest of the world", the current cut-off date per the visa bulletin is 1 Aug 02. I have to wait for the cut off date to advance so I can file i-485.
I have enclosed a sheet I use with my kids to measure how close we are.
http://www.murthy.com/mb_pdf/121506_P.html
January 2007 Visa Bulletin : Not a "Happy New Year"
The U.S. Department of State (DOS) has issued the first Visa Bulletin for the new calendar year. The January 2007 Visa Bulletin does not bring good tidings for everyone who hoped to start the year on a happy note. The employment-based (EB) categories were all either unchanged or had extremely limited forward movement. The only good news is that there was no further retrogression and that the EB3 preference category for Indian nationals broke the April 30, 2001 barrier and moved forward to May 8, 2001. All of the categories that were previously "current" continued to be current, and no category moved backward. There was a change in Schedule A, from unavailable to a June 15, 2004 cutoff date.
Employment-Based First Preference
The EB1 category remains current for all countries of chargeability.
Employment-Based Second Preference
In the EB2 category, all countries remain current except China and India. The cutoff dates for persons from mainland China and India remain unchanged. China continues to have a cutoff date of April 22, 2005. India continues to have a cutoff date of January 8, 2003. It is likely that these dates will remain stagnant in the near future, due to increasing demand for visa numbers.
Employment-Based Third Preference
India's cutoff date moved forward slightly, from April 22, 2001 to May 8, 2001. This slight movement may be significant, as it takes India past April 30, 2001, which was the deadline for 245(i) filings. This has importance because there were enormous numbers of cases filed on or right before April 30, 2001.
The only other country of chargeability that moved forward at all in EB3 was Mexico, which moved by a few days to May 15, 2001. All other areas of chargeability stayed at August 1, 2002, including worldwide, China, and the Philippines.
Other Workers
The Other Worker category was unchanged, with a cutoff date of October 1, 2001.
Schedule A Workers
The Schedule A category moved from "unavailable" to a cutoff date of June 15, 2004. This simply means that there are very few remaining of the 50,000 visas allocated to this category. The category was supposed to be eliminated in the January Visa Bulletin. Some numbers that had been issued to consulates for November were returned as unused, however, making them available again. Once these numbers are gone, the Schedule A cases will return to being counted with EB3, unless there is legislative relief.
Iraqi or Afghani Translators
This new subcategory within EB4 applies only to 50 Iraqi or Afghani nationals who have worked with the U.S. Armed Forces as translators for at least 12 months. The cutoff date remains at September 18, 2006.
Future Predictions by DOS
The Visa Bulletin indicated that the already heavy demand for EB2 visa numbers for China and India has been increasing. The DOS stated that the cutoff dates will not be able to move forward until current demand decreases.
Remember it's based on country of birth
I recommend Premium Processing for your i-140
