blessed_by_INS
Registered Users (C)
The sudden backlog reduction efforts by Citizenship and Immigration Services Offices during the past month have resulted in the use of almost 60,000 Employment numbers. As a result of this unexpected action it has been necessary to make immediate adjustments to several previously announced cut-off dates. All Citizenship and Immigration Services Offices have been notified of the following: Effective Monday July 2, 2007 there will be no further authorizations in response to requests for Employment-based preference cases. All numbers available to these categories under the FY-2007 annual numerical limitation have been made available.
What does this mean for you? Immediate action steps:
1. As of this afternoon, USCIS has confirmed that it will not accept I-485 applications filed for priority dates that were current in the July visa bulletin published in mid-June.
2. The Department of State has indicated that employment preference numbers will once again be available to these chargeability areas beginning October 1, 2007, under the FY-2008 annual numerical limitation. Translation: the numbers may be current again in October.
3. The medicals are valid for at least one year; therefore if you have already obtained them, it's not necessarily a waste, even if the applications are not accepted in July.
4. AILF's Legal Action Center is preparing to litigate. Plaintiffs and class members whose applications were rejected or returned would have the strongest legal claims and have the strongest claims to benefit from a favorable result. Some case law indicates that where an applicant did not apply or permitted the agency to "front desk" an application (turned the applicant away without evidence they had applied) those beneficiaries were not eligible for the remedies ordered by the court. Therefore you may consider filing now to take advantage of any favorable rulings in the future. A class action lawsuit means that a large group of people affected by this change may sue the federal government because of the change.
Therefore, you may consider filing the I-485 now even though USCIS will reject, to preserve the right to any future benefit, should you join the suit. Remember that the application will almost certainly be returned; you would send it in just so that you have a stronger position if you decide to join the lawsuit. Please let us know by email if you would like to file the I-485. This is the only way we will know that you would still like to file.
5. If you have not yet started the labor certification, now is the perfect time to start! Remember that you cannot apply for the green card unless the labor certification is approved (unless a labor certification is not required for your type of case). If you start now (rather than waiting), there's a better chance that you'll have the certification and be set to apply for the green card when the numbers are current.
What else can you do?
1. This "revocation" of the visa bulletin has never happened in the past, and in fact is in derogation of the regulations.
2. Preparations are already underway (thanks to the American Immigration Lawyer's Foundation (AILF)) for a class action suit. Stay tuned for more information on this, and see above.
3. URGENT CALL TO ACTION: This move is a violation of DOS regulations and your Congressional Representatives need to hear from you about this very urgent matter. Please contact your Representatives NOW and let them know about the unfair, unprecedented, and downright wrong decision the DOS has made:
Here are the MD Senators' Numbers:
Senator Mikulski: (202) 224-4654
Senator Cardin: (202) 224-4524
Here are the VA Senator's Numbers:
Senator Warner: (202) 224-2023
Senator Webb: (202) 224-4024
For contact information about Congressional Representatives, please click here and enter your zip code: http://capwiz.com/aila2/home/
