New Cutoff Date-6/9/98

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Bobbie

Registered Users (C)
For the first time in ten months, I picked up the phone and called the NSC. I got to a live person after 45 minutes. I started by explaining that while my case is technically an I-485, it is in a special category because it is asylum-based. It took several minutes for the INS officer to understand fully my words. Then he put me on hold to find out more information (the hold lasted 11 minutes). When he came back on he said that the "Priority date this year for you guys is June 9, 1998". I then asked him when will the date advance he said in October, "at the earliest". He assured me that the information has been confirmed by a "responsible manager" at the NSC.

I do not know how reliable that is. I am just sharing info with Jack, Alan, Gilbert and the rest.
 
No Title

Thanks Bobbie for sharing that information. Let\'s see how far the INS will go this FY. Regards
 
Priority date and cut-off date

Priority date and cut-off date have different meanings though they are related, as per these paragraphs extracted from INS and DOS Visa Bulletin.

Priority Date - In the INS Immigrant visa petition application process, the priority date is the date the petition was filed. If the alien relative has a priority date on or before the date listed in the visa bulletin, then he or she is currently eligible for a visa.

The cut-off date for an oversubscribed category is the priority date of the first applicant who could not be reached within the numerical limits. Only applicants who have a priority date earlier than the cut-off date may be allotted a number.
 
For our purposes

They are talking about relative/employment immigration.

For us asylees, the Priority Date is the date the INS receives our I-485 application.
 
That\'s correct

The definition of "priority date" does not apply for asylees, but can be understood as the filing date, which is different from "cut-off" date.
 
the easy way to look at this

To keep it simple, the filing date is our priority date. The cut-off date means that the INS can approve applications filed on or before that date.

The problem is that the INS does not keep a good record of asylee filing dates.
 
Right

Priority date is the filing date. Re-phrasing the cut-off date definition: cut-off date is the filing date of the first I-485 asylee applicant who could not be reached within the 10,000 quota.

INS does not keep a good record of asylee filing dates, because of the issue with applications filed at local INS offices before June 98.
Once the processing of those applications is completed everything will work much better.
 
BUT

Well, It is July 1998, not June 98.

By the time they get to the applications, the NSC will have almost five years of applications accumulated. Given the nature of INS work, I doubt that it is capable of well-managing such volumes of work. So I think problems will continue to persist.
 
cut-off date

If you read the cut-off date information on the INS news release carefully, applications filed ON OR BEFORE that date may be approved. Applications filed AFTER that date cannot be reached.

This is different from the terminology used in regular immigration.
 
No Title

When I said "everything will work much better" I did not mean that applications will be processed faster. There is a 10,000 quota that imposes a limit on the number of applications that NSC can process every year. They cannot process more than 10,000 unless the Congress authorizes. INS has proved to be able to process 10,000 applications per year, as shown in statistics for years previous to 1998. For some reason, they processed less than 10,000 during the last years, but they have publicly committed to better manage this issue.
What I meant is going to work better, is the information released on what is the filing date they are currently processing. We have seen that for years the reported date has been "frozen" on June 2, 1998. Why? because there are applications pending at local INS offices on which INS NSC does not have control. But, once their processing is completed, everything will be centralized at NSC and they will better manage the allocation of the 10,000 number because they will not longer depend on local INS offices, and will be able to periodically update that date in the processing time reports.
 
No Title

Bear in mind that on the cut-off date (or on any date) most likely more than one application was filed. So, there might be applications whose filing date is the same as the current cut-off date, but are not within the 10,000 quota for the current FY while others with the same filing date are within the quota!!. So, I really do not see a difference in the terminology. The term "may be" covers all these small details.
 
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