EB Numbers Will Backlog in January - Strategic Planning
Sometime within the next few days, the State Department (DOS) will post the
January 2005 Visa Bulletin online. The DOS has already announced that the
employment-based 3rd (EB-3) preference category for persons born in mainland
China, India and the Philippines will regress. By how much is anyone's guess.
Last time that the EB-3 numbers were backlogged was in June 2001. Mainland
China was backlogged for 10 months and India for 2 1/2 years. We predict that
the new backlogs will date back to 2001 or 2002.
What will the new backlogs mean for you?
First, the regressions will only affect you if you were born in one of the
"Axis of Anxiety" countries (mainland China, India or the Philippines) and you
qualify to obtain permanent residence in the employment-based third preference
(EB-3) category (professionals and skilled workers).
Here are some possible scenarios:
* If your employer has not yet submitted a labor certification on your
behalf or if your labor certification is pending, how much the coming backlogs
will affect you may depend upon where your job is located. How does this work?
Assume that the EB-3 numbers will backlog for two to three years. In many
states, it takes 2-3 years to obtain the approval of an RIR labor certification
(e.g., California, 2+ years; New York, 3+ years). Since the filing of your
labor certification establishes your priority date, by the time that the labor
certification is approved, your priority date may be current, and you can
proceed to file your application for adjustment of status (I-485) concurrently
with your employer's visa petition (I-140).
However, if your job is located in a state where RIR labor certifications are
processed more rapidly (e.g., Illinois, Minnesota, Ohio, Kansas, Missouri,
Nebraska - all in a little over one year), your current advantage over people
who work in California and New York will disappear since even after your labor
certification is approved, you may have to wait another year or two to apply
for adjustment of status.
What if PERM is finally enacted, and you are granted a certificate by the Labor
Department within a few months?
Time to pop open the champagne? Not if you were born in one of the "Axis of
Anxiety" countries (For those of you who haven't been following this discussion
closely, that would be mainland China, India or the Philippines). You would
have to wait another two to three years in order to apply for adjustment of
status.
source: www.Shusterman.com's immigration newsletter
