All EB Priority Dates Current from July 2001!
Posted Jun 12, 2001
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Earlier today, on June 12, 2001, the U.S. Department of State (DOS) released the Visa Bulletin, which showed that priority dates (PDs) in all the employment-based (EB) categories will become current effective July 1, 2001! This is indeed good news for many; particularly the EB3 candidates from countries like India and China who, just a few months ago, feared having to wait several years for the PDs to become current.

In fact, after the passage of the American Competitiveness in the Twenty First Century Act (AC21) of October 2000, many of us had assumed that EB PDs would become current by mid-2001. This is because AC21 removed the per-country quota limit, which exists under immigration law, if there are otherwise unused EB visa numbers available. For FY 2001, which is from October 1, 2000 until September 30, 2001, there are expected to be about 50,000 additional visa numbers available based on not utilizing prior years' allocation which are now available in the immigrant visa pool.

However, as recently as March 2001, Charles Oppenheim, Chief of the Immigrant Visa Control and Reporting Division at the DOS Visa Office, indicated that EB priority dates would only become current for China and India by end of 2001 or even early 2002. This seemed too long for EB PDs to become current. As we have mentioned in previous issues of the MurthyBulletin, Mr. Oppenheim is the official in charge of determining the visa cutoff dates for DOS's monthly Visa Bulletin based on worldwide usage of immigrant visas. So who could argue with him?

The Visa Bulletin chart for July 2001 reads "C" or current for ALL employment-based categories, even including the usually oversubscribed "other worker" category, which often has waiting periods of several years.

"Other workers," sometimes called unskilled workers, are those in occupations that require less than two years of experience. Mr. Oppenheim had noted that there will likely be a backlog again early in 2002 in the 'other worker' category. Therefore, future applicants in this category can expect long waiting periods to complete their green card process. On the other hand, DOS has indicated that all other EB categories are expected to remain current for the foreseeable future.

While the news is exhilarating for EB immigrant visa applicants, the news is not so pleasant for family-based (FB) categories. FB retrogressions have occurred from July 1, 2001, in the following categories:

• Worldwide Family First (F1) (incl China-mainland born and India)

• Worldwide Family Second (F2B) (incl China-mainland born, India, and Philippines)

• Worldwide Family Third (including China-mainland born and India)

• Mexico Family First preference

• Mexico Family Third preference

It is also possible that Family preference numbers in some categories could become "Unavailable" for August or September 2001.

Stay tuned for the latest information on immigration law in the MurthyBulletin and on our website.