From immigration-law.com
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11/06/2005: S. 1932 and Consular Immigrant Visa Proceeding vs. I-485 Application Proceeding
People must understand that the provision in the S. 1932 that will permit certain people to apply for adjustment of status (I-485) even during the period of visa retrogression will not apply to those who go through the consular immigrant proceeding. This means that those who have been waiting for the visa number outside of the U.S. to start the consular immigrant visa proceedings will not be able to get any help from this legislation. They will remain "subject" to the visa retrogression and until the visa number becomes available, they will not be able to apply for the immigrant visa for years from now. Those, who had already started the consular immigrant visa proceedings to take advantage of speedy processing in some consulates like Montreal, Canada or whatever and then remain stuck with the visa number retrogression, may be able to file I-485 application regardless of the visa retrogression, if they will be physically present in the U.S. at the time when this bill is enacted into law and the USCIS starts implementing the law.
Once this bill is enacted into law, there will be a huge difference between the consular immigrant visa processsing and the USCIS I-485 adjustment processing. Under the visa retrogression environment, it will make no sense that one considers a consular immigrant visa proceeding once this bill is enacted into law. This may sound unfair to those who will have to go through the consular proceeding as they are present outside of the U.S., but the intent of this legislation is to give a relief to those who will have to face a tremendous hardship after spending years of endurance and hard work and have been stricken by the lightening ball of visa retrogression. This bill amends Section 245 of the immigration statute which applies only to the I-485 application proceedings for those who are physically present in the United States.
