USCIS Terminated Controversial I-140/I-485 Concurrent "Adjudication" Policy

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AILA has reported that the USCIS issued a memorandum to the Service Centers to terminate the concurrent adjudication of I-140 and I-485 application practice immediately. This is a wonderful news in a number of respects, particularly for the customers of Nebraska Service Center and Texas Service Center which have been adhering to the concurrent adjudication policy unlike VSC and CSC. Firstly, the adjudication of I-140 petition will start moving on as they are now freed from the state of hostage from concurrently filed I-485 application processings. Secondly, since it has decided to adjudicate I-140 independently as separate from the concurrently filed I-485 applications, people may witness some improvement in I-140 processing times, helping those who need to change employment under AC 21 180-day rule. Unless the concurrent adjudication policy is cancelled, those Indians, Chinse, and Philippines professionals who filed the concurrent I-140 and I-485 packet and their I-140 petition remain unadjudicated as of the end of December 30, 2004, would have experienced a nightmare for not being able to change employment even under the compelling circumstances. In this regard, this is particularly important for the Indians, Chinese, and Philippines nationals who will face EB-3 visa number retrogression on January 1, 2005 in that they have a better chance to survive in the green card journey.

Caveat: This policy change does not change its current policy of "concurrent I-140/I-485 filing" which will continue unless it is changed in the future.
 
PERM regulation was published in the Federal Register on Monday, December 27, 2004. The rule becomes effective on March 28, 2005, 90 days after publication. This means that all labor certifications filed on or after March 28, 2005 will be processed under PERM.



Re-Filing a Non-PERM Case Under PERM

If a job order has not been placed for a pending, non-PERM labor certification application, the application may be re-filed under PERM without loss of the priority date under certain conditions. In order to re-file and maintain the priority date, the PERM application must be submitted pursuant to all PERM requirements and it must contain an identical job opportunity.
 
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