Retrogression, PDs and the like ...

[saras76]

Guys and Gals,

I am sure a lot of you are wondering what the deal is with this retrogression and why it has come to haunt you (especially if you are EB3). I think there is a lot of confusion out there regarding what the whole deal is and how it affects an individuals 485 application. After reading tons of threads and following newletters, this is what I have found.

Until recently all employment based categories were current (EB1, EB2 and EB3). This meant that adequate visa numbers were avaliable for approving a 485 application within either category. For those of you who do not know, a 485 application cannot be approved without a visa number being assigned to it first. There are only a certain number of visas that are alloted each year by the Department of State and until recently enough visa numbers were available for all cases. I think the limited visa numbers are a way of controlling the number of immigrants that are granted GCs. Note that the visa numbers are different for people of different countries. Needless to say, Indian and Chinese citizens face the biggest hurdles because of the limited number of visas and large number of applicants. Now onto the "Retrogression" problem ....

The problem started last year when USCIS instructed all centers to approve concurrently filed 140s and 485s together. Since most of the concurrent cases were from 03 and 04 and the 140 dates were way ahead of the 485 dates, the morons in the centers began to approve all concurrent 03 and 04 cases together neglecting cases from 01,02 and a lot of 03s. This lead to a rapid depletion of visa numbers especially in the EB3 category. What added to this problem was the fact that two centers (CSC and VSC) went on an approval binge and took away so many visa numbers within the span of a few months and that no visa numbers were left for 01,02 and 03 cases. When the great USCIS realized this blunder they were forced to abandon the stupidly implemented "concurrent adjucation" policy and retrogress the Priority Date. Again for those that do not know, for EB3 cases there is a cutoff Priority Date that has been set by USCIS and if the cases PD falls before the cutoff PD then the case will be processed otherwise it will just sit there till its PD crosses the current PD date released by USCIS (the PD of a case is the date the labor cert was filed and can be found on the approved 140 notice). The retrogression was done to ensure that old cases 01,02 and 03 cases got visa numbers and newly filed cases did not eat up the visa numbers. Currently the situation is so bad that they have stopped EB3 adjucation altogether and there are talks of them suspending Eb2 adjucation till October 05 when the new visas will be released. How ridiculous is that ....

I hope the above has shed some light for people who are confused about why their cases are not being adjucated. I always feel that it is better to understand the plight one is in rather than be blind to it. It is also good to know the reasons behind delayed adjucations. This is the only reason I have posted this thread.

All of the above is knowledge I have gathered and I may be wrong in certain parts. However, I am pretty confident that most of what I have described has taken place.

regards,

saras76

 

[Streamflow]

Retrogression history

I am sure a lot of you are wondering what the deal is with this retrogression and why it has come to haunt you ... After reading tons of threads and following newletters, this is what I have found.

Saras66:
Did you read Shusterman’s paper “Disaster Hits the EB-3 Category; Could EB-2 Be Next?” (http://shusterman.com/jul05.html#1)? According to this paper current retrogression is associated with the birth of the World Wide Web in 1995 and the subsequent dotcom explosion. As a consequence H-1B cap was raised from 65,000 to 115,000 and again to 195,000. Hundreds of thousands of computer professionals as well as business professionals, healthcare professionals, teachers, scientists, engineers and accountants and their spouses and children all applied for permanent residence. Since visa number for EB ‘Green card’ category is limited by 140,000 EB per a fiscal year (October 1 - September 30), the backlog was developed for future years. I think that concurrent filing and the USCIS efforts to work towards the goal of a maximum six-month processing time for all received application degrades the situation.

 

[gceeker05]

Saras,
Yes. You are right..

I am one of the victims of retrogression and currently going through the pain of waiting for my PD to be behind the cutoff date.

I completely agree that it is extremely difficult to guess the Cutoff date movement but is there someone (I am sure there are many more including you , Hanuman, Sandeep_N, Saurabh, Nishokie, baby_mde and others.. ) who can try to contribute here by estimating the date movement.

Guys and Gals,

I am sure a lot of you are wondering what the deal is with this retrogression and why it has come to haunt you (especially if you are EB3). I think there is a lot of confusion out there regarding what the whole deal is and how it affects an individuals 485 application. After reading tons of threads and following newletters, this is what I have found.
saras76

 

[mvusa]

Saras

Thanks for the complete information. I see I was very unlucky because I'm 2003 concurrent filer and did not get approved when the " avalanche" of approvals began. I do have friends that indeed were approved last year. Anyway, by others posting here, I've learnt that no PD, RD, ND is relative to TSC. They practically do whatever they want. They always go back and forth on the order of approvals. PPL from 2005 have been approved while poor souls from 2001 still pending!!!?????
So I just keep on praying to get my approval in October, because it seems they may run out of numbers even sooner next time!

 

[GAMA2003]

Guys and Gals,

I am sure a lot of you are wondering what the deal is with this retrogression and why it has come to haunt you (especially if you are EB3). I think there is a lot of confusion out there regarding what the whole deal is and how it affects an individuals 485 application. After reading tons of threads and following newletters, this is what I have found.

Until recently all employment based categories were current (EB1, EB2 and EB3). This meant that adequate visa numbers were avaliable for approving a 485 application within either category. For those of you who do not know, a 485 application cannot be approved without a visa number being assigned to it first. There are only a certain number of visas that are alloted each year by the Department of State and until recently enough visa numbers were available for all cases. I think the limited visa numbers are a way of controlling the number of immigrants that are granted GCs. Note that the visa numbers are different for people of different countries. Needless to say, Indian and Chinese citizens face the biggest hurdles because of the limited number of visas and large number of applicants. Now onto the "Retrogression" problem ....

The problem started last year when USCIS instructed all centers to approve concurrently filed 140s and 485s together. Since most of the concurrent cases were from 03 and 04 and the 140 dates were way ahead of the 485 dates, the morons in the centers began to approve all concurrent 03 and 04 cases together neglecting cases from 01,02 and a lot of 03s. This lead to a rapid depletion of visa numbers especially in the EB3 category. What added to this problem was the fact that two centers (CSC and VSC) went on an approval binge and took away so many visa numbers within the span of a few months and that no visa numbers were left for 01,02 and 03 cases. When the great USCIS realized this blunder they were forced to abandon the stupidly implemented "concurrent adjucation" policy and retrogress the Priority Date. Again for those that do not know, for EB3 cases there is a cutoff Priority Date that has been set by USCIS and if the cases PD falls before the cutoff PD then the case will be processed otherwise it will just sit there till its PD crosses the current PD date released by USCIS (the PD of a case is the date the labor cert was filed and can be found on the approved 140 notice). The retrogression was done to ensure that old cases 01,02 and 03 cases got visa numbers and newly filed cases did not eat up the visa numbers. Currently the situation is so bad that they have stopped EB3 adjucation altogether and there are talks of them suspending Eb2 adjucation till October 05 when the new visas will be released. How ridiculous is that ....

I hope the above has shed some light for people who are confused about why their cases are not being adjucated. I always feel that it is better to understand the plight one is in rather than be blind to it. It is also good to know the reasons behind delayed adjucations. This is the only reason I have posted this thread.

All of the above is knowledge I have gathered and I may be wrong in certain parts. However, I am pretty confident that most of what I have described has taken place.

regards,

saras76

Saras76,

will all EB categories visa number be current soon? if so where is source from? It is too hard to believe that?

From your quote: "Until recently all employment based categories were current "

Thanks

 

[mhsoor]

Current cutoff Priority date?

Saras76,

What is the current cutoff priority date for EB3 category?

 

[saras76]

PDs

Saras76,

will all EB categories visa number be current soon? if so where is source from? It is too hard to believe that?

From your quote: "Until recently all employment based categories were current "

Thanks

I did not say that all categories will be current soon. I said that until last year all categories were current. At the beginning of this year the dates for EB3s retogressed to Jan 2002 and then each month they moved a month until July 05 when they were completely halted. The new PD date for EB3 will be released in the September bulletin and is expected to be anywhere from June 2002 to Oct 2002. It could even go into 03 but there is no way to tell for sure.

regards,

saras

 

[saras76]

Current date

Saras76,

What is the current cutoff priority date for EB3 category?

Currently all EB3 cases have been halted so it does not matter what the PD is. Before this freeze I believe the cutoff was May or June 2002. It is expected that the new date will be sometime between june 2002 and oct 2002. We will find out for sure in September.

regards,

saras

 

[mhsoor]

That means, the cases filed before the cutoff date (June '02 - Oct '02, whatever may be the date) can expect the final approval (after october '05) provided there are enough immigration visa numbers available?

I did not say that all categories will be current soon. I said that until last year all categories were current. At the beginning of this year the dates for EB3s retogressed to Jan 2002 and then each month they moved a month until July 05 when they were completely halted. The new PD date for EB3 will be released in the September bulletin and is expected to be anywhere from June 2002 to Oct 2002. It could even go into 03 but there is no way to tell for sure.

regards,

saras

 

[saras76]

Yes ...

That means, the cases filed before the cutoff date (June '02 - Oct '02, whatever may be the date) can expect the final approval (after october '05) provided there are enough immigration visa numbers available?

mhsoor,

You are absolutely correct. Say in OCT 05, the date is set to June 2002 (this is a random guess) then all EB3 cases with PDs before June 2002 will be eligible for approval. If the name check has been cleared and there are no RFEs then EB3 cases with PDs before the cutoff date have a good chace of approval. I have heard that the numbers will run out fairly quickly so lets all hope that in October our PDs land up being before the cutoff date and our cases are approved quickly.

regards,

saras

 

[kishore_s]

Any predictions ?

Saras,

Mine is EB2 category and the PD is Mar 2002. My I140 was cleared and also had FP (Code 3 ) on June 21st. Had couple of LUDs (21,22,29,30 and Jul 5th). Do we know when can I expect my approval?

Thanks
Kishore

 

[saras76]

You are safe

kishore_s,

Since you are EB2 you are not retrogressed. There are some rumors floating around that they may retrogress EB2s this month but I have not seen anything on this yet. As for a predicition, I am afraid no one can accurately predict an approval. If TSC does not mess up your case, you should see your approval soon.

regards,

saras

 

[zamq]

i am not against sub_labor

guys,
i am not against sub_labor but they'll take our blood from us

you know we file our 140/485 with our own labor cases in 2003 or 2004
then comes these sub_labor people who filed their 140/485 in late may/june 2005 and their pd's will be 2000/2001/2002

so those guys will have preference instead of us.
its very tough to think about our situation here
we are here from past 8 years and paying all taxes and everything and our cases are still on hold by Retrogress

but people who came late to USA took sub-labor for 10k or some thing and applied for 140/485 , those guys are lucky

i have to wait for 2 more years for GC i think,my PD is feb 2004

 

[saras76]

I guess thats life ..

guys,
i am not against sub_labor but they'll take our blood from us

you know we file our 140/485 with our own labor cases in 2003 or 2004
then comes these sub_labor people who filed their 140/485 in late may/june 2005 and their pd's will be 2000/2001/2002

so those guys will have preference instead of us.
its very tough to think about our situation here
we are here from past 8 years and paying all taxes and everything and our cases are still on hold by Retrogress

but people who came late to USA took sub-labor for 10k or some thing and applied for 140/485 , those guys are lucky

i have to wait for 2 more years for GC i think,my PD is feb 2004

zamq,

Please do not be to disheartened. I understand your frustration. I have been in this country for over 10 years now and am still struggling to get my GC. I have stayed in the same job and have done everything through the proper channel yet I have faced a lot of problems. My PD is in August 01 but TSC has messed up my case badly. I guess thats how life is. Its going to be tough at times but we have be strong and face these challenges. It is painful to see recently filed cases being approved by TSC while we are made to suffer. We cannot let these thoughts get to us though. One day soon we will be done with this mess. Personally this experience has made me work harder and revaluate things that are of more importance than a GC. I probably would have never thought about those things if my process had been smooth. My point is that there are always two sides to every situation no matter how bad it seems to us.

regards,

saras

 

[zamq]

thanks saras76 for your kind words
i can understand your situation how your going thru
my first labor is in NY state and my company layoffed me in my 7th year
then i went to another company ,they filed my labor and got approved and applied 140/485 in feb 2004.

yeah, but i cant resist more as new F1 people are getting these sub-labor and are getting Gcs left and right
this hurts me lot but i cant do anything, hope our cases will get approval soon

zamq,

Please do not be to disheartened. I understand your frustration. I have been in this country for over 10 years now and am still struggling to get my GC. I have stayed in the same job and have done everything through the proper channel yet I have faced a lot of problems. My PD is in August 01 but TSC has messed up my case badly. I guess thats how life is. Its going to be tough at times but we have be strong and face the challenges. It is painful to see recently filed cases being approved by TSC while we are made to suffer. We cannot let these thoughts get to us though. One day soon we will be done with this mess. Personally this experience has made me work harder and revaluate things that are of more consequence than a GC. I probably would have never thought about those things if my process had been smooth. My point is that there are always two sides to every situation no matter how bad it seems to us.

regards,

saras

 

[victim_of_INS]

Regarding Labour Subs

Hi Folks
Some of you may be cursing labor_subs(LS).Please don't.I have tried to get a
LS and tried all the co .They were giving me deals so hard that I did not take one.Then my two friends tried ,they have been promised and filed 140. Marketing Guru of this Blood Sucker co knows well what to do .After 1 year of constant lies and assurance these twi friends could not file 485.140 is said to be approved.Latter they got pissed off and left the co.They complain to DOL and USCIS and came to know that co was having 1 Labor and they filed only one 140 all other were given some number.If you register to website ,you will get status of 140 but not your name.So cut the story short ,let me assure you they aslo pay price ,labor does not come so lightly as some of you may think.You can't feel the kabor pain ,unless you go thru it.LS world is full of fraud and blood_sucker.You people are lucky who have not gone thru it.
Thanks
Victim_of_INS

 

[zamq]

Vivtim_of_ins,
dont think otherwise, i am not cusrsing about LS, but i am telling about my pain,
i have lot of friends who got their GCs last year using Sub_labor that too they applied 140/485 in 2004 as their labor Pds are in 2000/2001/1999

sorry to hear about your 2 friends

Hi Folks
Some of you may be cursing labor_subs(LS).Please don't.I have tried to get a
LS and tried all the co .They were giving me deals so hard that I did not take one.Then my two friends tried ,they have been promised and filed 140. Marketing Guru of this Blood Sucker co knows well what to do .After 1 year of constant lies and assurance these twi friends could not file 485.140 is said to be approved.Latter they got pissed off and left the co.They complain to DOL and USCIS and came to know that co was having 1 Labor and they filed only one 140 all other were given some number.If you register to website ,you will get status of 140 but not your name.So cut the story short ,let me assure you they aslo pay price ,labor does not come so lightly as some of you may think.You can't feel the kabor pain ,unless you go thru it.LS world is full of fraud and blood_sucker.You people are lucky who have not gone thru it.
Thanks
Victim_of_INS

 

[Texas]

countdown to october continues...hopefully soon we will all celebrate.

EB3 RD 07/2002
PD 09/2000

FP1 01/2004
FP2 07/2005

RFE Ack 05/2005