Philadelphia Backlog Elimination Center Tracking

[2002calabor]

I don't think it will change

I seriously doubt that this will change anything. I think the industry is more concerned about getting more H1B's or some other visa to foriegners. I don't think they are concerned with what happens to your life once you are here.

As far as AILA action is concerned it may bear result but it will take really long.

Hey guys,
This is completely off-topic, but since the last ~15 pages of this thread have been mostly about the recent cut-off dates, I hope you don't mind.
I've been reading all these sad replies, especially since the new Visa Bulletin came out, and first I was the same, but then I realized that there is a brighter side of the story: This Visa Bulletin has triggered something. We've been sad and upset for long years, but couldn't do anything, because the whole process was way out of our hands and nobody who could have changed anything was interested in doing so. Now suddenly everybody starts moving and acting and I'm 100% it will have a good result for all of us. Just think about these:
- Bill Gates and other IT leaders have been pushing the government to let more high-tech expert into the US; they need us and also realized that other booming countries (India, China, and don't forget about some European countries) could be strong competitors and therefore better destinations for us
- AILA is also trying to do something, because this is their interest as well: There are (few) attorneys, like Rajiv Khanna, who are doing a lot for our community even if there's "no big fire" outside, but now even the "money-hungers" are lobbying, because if we leave, they'll lose their job. I've seen some good starters on the AILA website (they're organizing a national lobby day for September 21) and on ILW.COM (a request to allow filing I-485 even if our PD is not current - we won't get GC, but at least EAD and AC-21)
- in the Senate and Congress there are some bills introduced that would ease our pain. We all know which the best is, but I'm sure there will be a fight. On the other hand, they have to settle the problem. Not because of us, but rather because of the 10,11,12 or who knows how many million illegals. I guess 3-4% of the whole population is big enough to make them do something.
Finally here's something very interesting (some might ironically say "funny") before I wish you all a nice weekend:

"Outsourcing, Insourcing, now Hybrid Sourcing
posted by zogger on Wednesday September 14, @01:16PM
Hybrid sourcing is a new term being used by a startup company called Sea Code. They have a rather unique idea for how to run their software development business, stick all the devs on an ocean liner and park them just technically offshore enough to be outside the US, and therefore, outside normal "onshore" business laws like with H1B workers."
Source: http://technocrat.net/article.pl?sid=05/09/15/0127227

Have a nice weekend, stop worrying and don't even think about selling your house or packing your bag. Just be patient!

 

[cacanuk]

I can't believe this mess

Just got this from DBEC - sent e-mail for screen shot yesterday:

Dear Requestor,

You have reached the <?xml:namespace prefix = st1 ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-comffice:smarttags" />Dallas Backlog Elimination Center status inquiry mailbox. At this time, we are unable to provide status information on Permanent Labor Certifications. All Dallas Backlog Elimination Center files are being transferred to a new automated system. Once the data entry process is completed, a 45-Day Letter and Selection of Continuation Option letter will be issued on all applications providing a new case ID number and may request additional information from the employer.<?xml:namespace prefix = o ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-comfficeffice" />
If your request is in reference to the following, if acceptable, we will update your information as requested:
• Address updates for attorney, employer, or alien
• Change of attorney (or attorney address changes)
Aliens seeking status must contact their employer or attorney to obtain information.

For frequently asked questions, please visit the following Internet website:

http://atlas.doleta.gov/foreign/faqs.asp

To obtain general information regarding transfer times, please visit the following Internet website:

http://www.workforcesecurity.doleta.gov/foreign/times.asp

To obtain general information regarding the PERM System, please visit the Internet website below or use the e-mail address provided:
www.plc.doleta.gov

PERM.DFLC@dol.gov

There is no need to submit multiple requests. If you have not already received one, the next notices that you will receive from this office will be a 45-Day Letter and a Selection of Continuation Option letter.

If you are requesting a 7th year extension to an H-1B visa, please send an e-mail to:

h1b7yr@dal.dflc.us

Your patience is appreciated.

DFLC Dallas Backlog Elimination Center

 

[tickticktick]

No movement yet

Hey AwardMyGC -

After hell broke loose this week, I got my lawyer to call in to the BRC (after about 3 emails and 2 phone calls) and he got pretty much the same answer - Final Review.

Given that I haven't seen many approvals in Sep, I'm not too hopeful of getting an approval by Sep 30. When I spoke to my lawyer about potential legal options/lawsuits, he mentioned that since immigration is a "previlige" and not a "right" under the constitution -- there not much that one can do.

While I'm happy for those with later PDs who have gotten approvals -- the pure randomness of the whole process is plain depressing.
So, I'm still watching the clock go.. tick..tick...tick..

Oh well, I guess if it doesn't kill you - it only makes your stronger

PD : 11/xx/2001
EB2, Non RIR, VA

atlanta,vvpva,afx05,Beam,driveto,mvrgopaal,nkindia,attwist,jiangnan,whatheheck,rsiv,tickticktick

Any new updates on your case status? Please keep us all posted.

Thanks

AwardMyGC

 

[mvrgopaal]

Another approval March 29 2002

My employer send me a note saying that PBEC is processing March 2002 cases for Virginia. He also send me the approval notice of priority dated March'29 2002.
But my PD is march 22, he says he did not recieve any information on my case.
Thanks
mvrgopaal

 

[StressTestInUSA]

just in case...

I think with these kind of Visa Dates..it makes no sense to even look out for our
Labor Certification...

Anyways..just a thought if the retrogression continues..go back home and come back at 140 or 485 stage..? At that point of time does the current employer send in a H1..? Do we need paystubs for all that period...? I think that will not become a LC substitution case...?

Cant imagine hanging on to the same job in this infinite loop ...Who can help us out ..?

 

[Saurav_4096]

Don't know what to say...

I beleive readers will not mind as this post is not related to PEBC
Looking into current retrogation dates, I feel something fishy is going behind the scenes. May be burocrates here have planned out this. One thing, which is out of my understanding why they are using indirect way to say NO to immigrants, rather then if they say GC policy has been completely abandoned. This will allow us to plan our future and look for alternatives.

The current situation is nothing but modern slavery in the county who preaches freedom to world. As how hard it will be to stick to one employer for 8 - 10 years just to get GC. On top of that you have to work for the same designation.....

This is nothing but cold-blooded mass murder of skills and career of hardworking individuals.

 

[smallriver]

Things may not be that bad

Things may not be that bad. My guess is that the cut off date will go forward pretty quickly, because there are only hundreds of people who have PD older than 2001.

 

[msabir]

Another tunnel after this tunnel

Things may not be that bad. My guess is that the cut off date will go forward pretty quickly, because there are only hundreds of people who have PD older than 2001.

Yes it will move quickly until it hits April 2001. But I suspect, then it will be stuck in April 2001 for years, possibly, because of the damn 245i that Clinton signed. Because of 245i, it is taking 3-4 yrs to get labor and it will be because of 245i to take 1-3 yrs to get 485.

245i has really screwed all of those who were legal in US. I think they should have had a seperate que for legals and illegal. I can't believe someone as smart and compassionate as Bill Clinton didn't realize the effects of 245i. May be he was misguided or he over looked, but we are all screwed. He used to be my role model. Jeze...

I was always very optimistic but as soon as we started to see the light at the end of the tunnel, we are told there is another tunnel after this.

May be we should try to email Chris Core at 630 WMAL. His radio program is listened by thousands in DC area including many senators. Many times he does program on radio based on the emails he gets and I have seen that issues raised there get a lot of media attention eventually. All the republicans keep saying that they want legal immigration. So its the time to bring the issue to their attention.

 

[sameer2730]

Arent 245i in a seperate queue

I have heard that most of the 245i's are in the "Other workers" category which is not the same as the "Skilled Workers" category. Their 485 quota's are different. Is this correct?

 

[rsiv]

still in final review

not sure how many 2001 MD cases stuck like this, any one form MD with PD 2001 waiting for LC?

what is the meaning of final review any way ?

atlanta,vvpva,afx05,Beam,driveto,mvrgopaal,nkindia,attwist,jiangnan,whatheheck,rsiv,tickticktick

Any new updates on your case status? Please keep us all posted.

Thanks

AwardMyGC

 

[smallriver]

There are some PD 2001 guys

There are some PD 2001 guys. Mine is PD 10/23/2001. I also know some other people with PD 2001. I also know a guy with PD 4/20/2001 from MD got GC 1 ans 1/2 year ago, since he was not stopped by the April 2001. But my guess is that there should not be so many if the application is evenly distributed among the years (Which should be true anyway). The logic is the following:

1. Almost all the guys with PD before April 2001 already had GC (at least EAD), since they were not stopped.
2. Almost all the guys with PD 2001 (At least MD cases) passed the state. Let us not count the PD < April 2001 cases. Some of them have been approved by the reginal. Only the leftovers (unfortunately, I am the one) went to the BEC.
3. So the leftover PD 2001 guys should be much smaller than PD 2002, 2003, 2004 guys.
4. If the retro is truly a mis-caculation, which I believe it is true or it is used to stop the PERM guys passing the PD 2001, 2002, 2003, 2004, and early 2005 guys. The 2001 guys should see the light pretty soon.

Hopefully I am right.

 

[MDwaiter24]

You are right

Yes, out of 140,000 EB based visas allocated annually there
is only 10,000 visas allocated for category "Other Workers".
Because most of those 245i cases are TR and "other workers"
and they havn't been processed yet USCIS wants to play it
safe and puts the retrogression dates further back than necessary
just to play it safe. Once they go through all April 2001 cases
and they will see that these cases are really "Other Workers"
the retrogression dates for the rest of the EB categories will
jump ahead and continue progress very fast. On other hand
"other workers" category will be "Unavailable" or before Apr 2001
for a very long time. So I am being cautiously optimistic about
our situation and believe that by the time we'll get our LC certified
our visa bulletin dates will be current.

I have heard that most of the 245i's are in the "Other workers" category which is not the same as the "Skilled Workers" category. Their 485 quota's are different. Is this correct?

 

[smallriver]

They are not EB2/3

Those guys are not EB2/3. so they only stopped us for LC, they should not stop us further. This retro is really something weird. The only logic explaination is that the government wants to have a flow control, so the PERM guys will not go pass PD 2001, 2002, 2003, 2004, and early 2005 guys. Other than that I do not see any other explainations. Since the EB has been always current until last month, which means that the INS never borrowed future quota.

Is it possible that the congress reduced the EB2/3 numbers for the future? If not, PD 2001 guys should see the light pretty soon. At least BEC started working.

 

[MDwaiter24]

I believe that the retro dates are very conservative so USCIS is safe

They don't want to move dates earlier again as as they receive cases from DOL.

There are some PD 2001 guys. Mine is PD 10/23/2001. I also know some other people with PD 2001. I also know a guy with PD 4/20/2001 from MD got GC 1 ans 1/2 year ago, since he was not stopped by the April 2001. But my guess is that there should not be so many if the application is evenly distributed among the years (Which should be true anyway). The logic is the following:

1. Almost all the guys with PD before April 2001 already had GC (at least EAD), since they were not stopped.
2. Almost all the guys with PD 2001 (At least MD cases) passed the state. Let us not count the PD < April 2001 cases. Some of them have been approved by the reginal. Only the leftovers (unfortunately, I am the one) went to the BEC.
3. So the leftover PD 2001 guys should be much smaller than PD 2002, 2003, 2004 guys.
4. If the retro is truly a mis-caculation, which I believe it is true or it is used to stop the PERM guys passing the PD 2001, 2002, 2003, 2004, and early 2005 guys. The 2001 guys should see the light pretty soon.

Hopefully I am right.

 

[MDwaiter24]

Doubt it

I doubt that the Congress would ever lower the quota, it would go
against the president's "welcoming legal immigrant thing", I believe just
the oposite, they may increase the quotas to ease up the situation a little.
And don't forget that processing the GC US gov't gets revenues that is
desperataly needed in times when we spent billions in Iraq and in LA.

The reason we have this situation is that DOL was very slow and now
the speed has increased because BEC and PERM is throwing cases in.
So when you have things crawling from DOL 140,000 quota is sufficient
to be current, but the same quota is not sufficient to absorb 400,000
LCs and the lines develop. There is more to this story but generally this
is the idea.

INS doen't borrow quota from the future, the numbers may go unused
or use unused numbers from the past. Congress may do the same to
deal with this siutation. They used 50,000 unused visas from the past
to help schedule A visa. They may do something like that for everyone.
They may use 50,000 lottery visas and give it to us, if the lottery gets
canceled. Lot may happen.

Those guys are not EB2/3. so they only stopped us for LC, they should not stop us further. This retro is really something weird. The only logic explaination is that the government wants to have a flow control, so the PERM guys will not go pass PD 2001, 2002, 2003, 2004, and early 2005 guys. Other than that I do not see any other explainations. Since the EB has been always current until last month, which means that the INS never borrowed future quota.

Is it possible that the congress reduced the EB2/3 numbers for the future? If not, PD 2001 guys should see the light pretty soon. At least BEC started working.

 

[MDwaiter24]

You are almost there

My observation is that people in final review get their LC certified
in 2-3 weeks. So you are almost there... congratulations!

not sure how many 2001 MD cases stuck like this, any one form MD with PD 2001 waiting for LC?

what is the meaning of final review any way ?

 

[MDwaiter24]

Totally agreeing, see the explanation above

Things may not be that bad. My guess is that the cut off date will go forward pretty quickly, because there are only hundreds of people who have PD older than 2001.

 

[July_2003]

Forget about retrogression! What about PBEC?

Why is everybody so worried about the retrogression? I would worry about PBEC progress more. They promised to finish data entry by the end of September and now they are telling they entered only 66% of cases and most of them just briefly. With this progress we will wait for our LCs years!!!

 

[Speed of Sound]

Final Review?

My observation is that people in final review get their LC certified
in 2-3 weeks. So you are almost there... congratulations!

Well that is good news.

How did you get a status update? Did you call PBEC? I would like to get an update of my status too.

PD Oct 2002

 

[tickticktick]

How about some real numbers? Gurus?

I *really* appreciate the positive attitude from mdwaiter24 and smallriver.

However, guys- if you've been in this line for a while you *know* that there is no logic to this whole thing. Whenever some of my American colleagues ask me about the whole process - and I try and explain it to them - I realize how this whole thing is so chaotic.

So, in such chaotic situations, we need to go with data. Any updates fro the Gurus? Any approvals in Sep?