September 2007 Visa Bulletin : Some Good News
Posted Aug 24, 2007
©MurthyDotCom
As was reported to MurthyDotCom and MurthyBulletin readers immediately upon issuance of the September 2007 Visa Bulletin, there is good news for EB1, EB2, and for certain EB3 foreign nationals in next month's Visa Bulletin. [See our August 17, 2007 MurthyBulletin article, September Visa Bulletin - Some EB Categories Show Availability.] The September Visa Bulletin is also favorable for EB4, Religious Workers, and EB5. The contents of that Visa Bulletin are summarized here for our readers. The most recent Visa Bulletin chart from the U.S. Department of State (DOS) is always available on MurthyDotCom.
©MurthyDotCom
Summary of Visa Bulletin
©MurthyDotCom
Employment-Based First Preference (EB1)
This category has a cutoff date of January 1, 2007 for all countries of chargeability.
©MurthyDotCom
Employment-Based Second Preference (EB2)
This category has a cutoff date of January 1, 2007 for worldwide, Mexico, and the Philippines. China's cutoff date is January 1, 2006; while India's cutoff date is April 1, 2004.
©MurthyDotCom
Employment-Based Third Preference (EB3)
In EB3, there is no availability for China, India, or Mexico. The worldwide category and the Philippines have cutoff dates of August 1, 2002. The "other workers" category is completely unavailable.
©MurthyDotCom
Employment-Based Fourth / Fifth / Religious Workers and Targeted Employment
The EB4, EB5, religious workers, and the targeted employment categories all have cutoff dates of January 1, 2007 for all countries of chargeability.
©MurthyDotCom
Explanation
©MurthyDotCom
As explained in our earlier article, cited above, these numbers are available because the consulates returned unused numbers from July 2007. Since September 30th marks the end of the fiscal year, any numbers not utilized during September are wasted, as they are not rolled over into the next fiscal year. Thus, the favorable cutoff dates in many categories reflect an effort on the part of the DOS to avoid potentially wasting immigrant visa numbers by making sure that enough cases are eligible for approval.
©MurthyDotCom
This will be very helpful to some individuals who, for example, were traveling abroad and could not return to the United States in time to file before August 17, 2007, under the extended July Visa Bulletin. If their priority dates are current for September 2007, some of these people may now be able to file their I-485 cases in September. There are also those with labor certifications that have been pending in the Department of Labor Backlog Elimination Centers, who were unable to file before August 17, 2007. It is also possible that some of these cases could be filed in September, if the labor certifications are approved in time. Of course, it will not help EB3 India, China, or Mexico.
©MurthyDotCom
We at the Murthy Law Firm urge the USCIS to make sufficient efforts toward using all the visa numbers by the end of this fiscal year. With demand greatly exceeding supply in this case, all efforts should be made to avoid squandering these numbers that are valuable to the beneficiaries as well as their U.S. employers. The USCIS has recently demonstrated that they are capable of processing large volumes of cases quickly. Similar effort should be put forth to approve enough cases so that no visa numbers are lost.