Please do not support the AILF Class Action Lawsuit
I do not see the justification for the lawsuite. Here are my reasons:
Chain of events leading to the July Visa Bulletin Update:
1. In the beginning of this year, USCIS realized that due to their conservative approach in handling retrogression, 10,000 visa numbers remained unused in the fiscal year 2006. Ombudsman's annual report addressed this.
2. In May 2007, USCIS realized that almost 50% of the 140,000 visa numbers for 2007 fiscal year reamined unused. This cased them to move the priority dates drastically in June 2007 Visa Bulletin.
3. In June, both NSC and TSC started by requesting approx. 10,000 visa numbers each. They ran out of these numbers pretty quickly so they requested another batch.
4. While the above was going on, it was time for DOS to release the July Visa Bulletin. At that point since USCIS had only requested 20,000 visa numbers and there were still over 40,000 visas available, DOS decided to make all EB categries current.
5. In the middle of June, TSC and NSC received their second batch of 10K visas each, which they ran out of pretty quickly too. By this time USCIS realized that they still had thousands of pending cases in the pipeline. Aware of the July scenario where they would get inundated by new applications, USCIS decided to go ahead and utilize all the remaining visa numbers for fiscal year 2007. In the final days of June, USCIS approved/ assigned visa numbers to 25,000 pending cases.
6. Since visa numbers for 2007 were exhausted, USCIS requested DOS to issue an update to the July Visa Bulletin, so that they do not have to accept new application in July.
Outcome:
Positive:
Majority of the backlog has been cleared. Severe retrogression is not expected in future.
Negative:
People expecting to file 485 in July are not able to do so. But most likely they will be able to do so in October.
Possible outcome after the AILF lawsuit
Positive:
USCIS will be forced to accept new applications in July.
Negative:
USCIS might cancel 25,000 485 applications approved in the last days of June. This would add to asevere backlog. Processing time for 485 and all other applications is bound to get pushed back.
I do not see the justification for the lawsuite. Here are my reasons:
Chain of events leading to the July Visa Bulletin Update:
1. In the beginning of this year, USCIS realized that due to their conservative approach in handling retrogression, 10,000 visa numbers remained unused in the fiscal year 2006. Ombudsman's annual report addressed this.
2. In May 2007, USCIS realized that almost 50% of the 140,000 visa numbers for 2007 fiscal year reamined unused. This cased them to move the priority dates drastically in June 2007 Visa Bulletin.
3. In June, both NSC and TSC started by requesting approx. 10,000 visa numbers each. They ran out of these numbers pretty quickly so they requested another batch.
4. While the above was going on, it was time for DOS to release the July Visa Bulletin. At that point since USCIS had only requested 20,000 visa numbers and there were still over 40,000 visas available, DOS decided to make all EB categries current.
5. In the middle of June, TSC and NSC received their second batch of 10K visas each, which they ran out of pretty quickly too. By this time USCIS realized that they still had thousands of pending cases in the pipeline. Aware of the July scenario where they would get inundated by new applications, USCIS decided to go ahead and utilize all the remaining visa numbers for fiscal year 2007. In the final days of June, USCIS approved/ assigned visa numbers to 25,000 pending cases.
6. Since visa numbers for 2007 were exhausted, USCIS requested DOS to issue an update to the July Visa Bulletin, so that they do not have to accept new application in July.
Outcome:
Positive:
Majority of the backlog has been cleared. Severe retrogression is not expected in future.
Negative:
People expecting to file 485 in July are not able to do so. But most likely they will be able to do so in October.
Possible outcome after the AILF lawsuit
Positive:
USCIS will be forced to accept new applications in July.
Negative:
USCIS might cancel 25,000 485 applications approved in the last days of June. This would add to asevere backlog. Processing time for 485 and all other applications is bound to get pushed back.
