Hopefully sometime, but not in the "near future".
Unfortunately, there doesn’t seem to be any pressing need to expedite permanent residence applications. In general, the drivers for any kind of ‘reengineering’ at INS are: lobbies and political candidates.
Lobbies influence INS’ workings to realize business benefits. When the so called ‘tech lobby’ demanded additional workers, the H1-B quota was upped; when tech lobby felt that H1-Bs weren’t coming through fast enough, a premium processing of H1 was requested; when companies weren’t able to entice international executives on L1 because their spouses could not work in the US, EADs for E/L spouses were introduced.
Given the state of US economy and lack of any incentives, it is unlikely that any lobby will push for rapid processing of permanent residence applications. This is also the reason why you won’t see anyone pushing EADs for H spouses; H workers are aplenty, and have demonstrated their willingness to come to US without any demands for spousal work benefits. (Of course, where needed, the spouses get an H1-B for themselves.)
Political Candidates, from time to time, promise INS reforms. President Bush has also recommended an overhaul of INS and a reduction of processing times to six months. However, government driven changes occur at a relatively slower pace than lobby driven changes, so it may take a while before we see any kind of rapid processing of permanent residence applications.
Here is an excerpt from Oh Law Firm’s (
http://www.immigration-law.com/ ) “Breaking News” section, dated 2/8/02:
Priority Dates and Impact of Forthcoming Changes:
Aside from the stagnation of government businesses as the aftermath of September 11 incident and the immigration businesses being turned into a back-burner, the news from the relevant agencies, particularly the INS, DOL, DOS, indicate that the Year 2002 may be recorded one of the years when no changes are anticipated either positively or negatively.
Same may not be true with the Year 2003. Next year, so many dramatic and drastic changes are scheduled by the government agencies, which will affect one way or another the priority date movement. First, early next year, the U.S. Department of Labor is scheduled to launch a new permanent labor certification program which is named "PERM." The DOL promises that the processing of qualified labor certification will take only one week rather than months or years. Consequently, a massive number of approved labor certification will start flowing into the INS processing system. Second, the Bush Administration\'s newly released FY 2003 INS budget proposal predicts that the INS processing times of applications will be reduced to 6 months by the end of FY 2003, which is September 30, 2003. What it means is that more numbers of I-485 approvals will be produced in a given time, taking away the employment-based immigrant visa numbers fast. Third, the INS has been considering either Premium Processing Services for I-140 or concurrent filing of I-140 and I-485, which will also dramatically change the processing time. The INS has also actively pushing "on-line" filing system which may become reality either next year or following year. Remember that there is a legislative mandate to automate adjudication process by 2003. Additionally, by April 30, 2001, the DOL received close to 300,000 labor certification cases to take advantage of 245(i) benefit. These cases are currently crawling in a snail-pace at the level of the State labor offices, SWAs (formerly called SESAs). However, late next year, a huge number of these cases will start moving into the Service Centers\' production lines.
These upcoming changes will bring a mixed bag to different groups of employment-based immigration applicants. Early bird applicants may take advantage of a shorter processing time at all level of the proceedings. However, late starters may encounter priority date problems because of the massive number of immigrant visa numbers which will be taken out as affected by the reengineering of labor and immigration proceedings. It is interesting to learn how the Visa Office of the U.S. Department of State will predict for the priority date movements in the later part of the Year 2003.
It is also a unknown factor how return of the H-1B annual quota to 65,000 (currently 195,000) on October 1, 2003 and conclusion of the ongoing negotiation of Mexican immigration program will play out in the pressumre on employment-based immigration quota system in the upcoming years.
This web site will continue to monitor the reengineering process, its impact on immigration system, and related issues and development. Please stay tuned to this web site.
