Endless Wait

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Waiting in line for a decade is never fun. Drives people to the edge - or sometimes even over (that’s when they go back!). in that state of mind, it’s easy to miss the forest for the trees in understanding why immigration is such a nightmare.

USCIS operating performance report for April 2009 - released recently in June, highlights USCIS accomplishments in FY 2008 and provides current status as of April 2009. This is a great document that provides a good picture of USCIS workings on a monthly basis.

- Pending Naturalization petitions at the USCIS have been at the lowest that they’ve ever been in the history of the USCIS. Quite an achievement and we congratulate USCIS for that!

- They are hiring while the rest of the country is laying people off. USCIS has grown 20% - or 1700 employees - in the last year alone.

- I-140 processing is close to their targeted 4 month time frame.
The BIG BIG issue remains to be visa numbers. A system that allows a lot of temporary workers to stay for several years, allows them to apply to immigrate and they makes them wait a decade or more in line to get there. There is not much that the USCIS can do about that. That’s all what the law dictates and USCIS, just like you and I, has to follow the law.

However, using up available visa numbers is USCIS’s responsibility. Some of us may remember that in 2008, they came out with a report that highlighted hundreds of thousands of unused visa numbers over the past 15 years. This means that visa numbers were available, either directly in a category, or as a result of lesser demand in other visa categories (such as Eb1, Eb4, Eb5, etc.) but USCIS was not able to adjudicate enough petitions in time to use those numbers. A real frustration for those waiting in line. USCIS has been a lot better about using up visa numbers in FY 2008 and FY 2009. Final numbers for this year will not be available for several more months, but we’ll be keeping a watch and report on this blog.

Understanding the visa number process - the role of the law, DOL and the USCIS, as well as following USCIS monthly reports, provides a better picture of how the system is performing.

http://www.uscis.gov/files/nativedocuments/operating_performance_apr09.pdf

Finally! Effective June 29, 2009.

http://www.uscis.gov/files/article/premproc_22jun09.pdf
Most people involved with the immigration process thought that this was a no-brainer - USCIS makes money & people get I-140’s fast.  I-140’s are so important for immigrant petitioners for several reasons, some of which are -

- They can actually exercise their right to switch jobs after their I-485 petition has been waiting for 180 days.

- They can get 3 year H1-B extensions while they are waiting in the line for permanent residency.

- They are one step further in the green card process - get slightly better sleep!

There are some caveats to this update though. The following categories remain unavailable:

• EB-1C: Multinational Corporation Executive/Manager Petitions
• EB-2NIW: National Interest Waiver based EB-2 Petitions.

Not sure why.

We’ve been reporting on I-140 related issues at Endlesswait.com and, in fact, it was the long waits on I-140 in 2007 and 2008 that led to the creation of this website.

Follow our I-140 reports at http://www.endlesswait.com/category/i140/ starting with http://www.endlesswait.com/i140/i-140-backlog-is-18-months-now-for-eb3-nsc/

For those that are new to the EB-5, this is one way for foriegn nationals to petition the USCIS for permanent residency by starting a business or acquiring an existing business. However, there are several rules/limitations to the Eb-5 which limits the practicality of this option for most. For instance, the business is required to create 10 qualified jobs in the United States within 2 years and requires an investment of $500K - $1M depending on the location and industry that the new business will be involved with.

Read more about the EB-5 - Immigration Through Investment before reading the rest of this story.

Traditionally, EB-5 category has not seen much demand due to these restrictions. However, recently, perhaps due to the unreasonable wait time associated with other Employment Based forms of acquiring permanent residency (EB2 and EB3), there has been a significant increase in the demand for EB-5 visa numbers.

USCIS released a new memorandum on June 17th clarifying some of the requirements on the EB-5 visa on what exactly the “2 year period means”. This memorandum also clarifies the meaning of a full-time position as it relates to job creation. Read the memorandum here - EB-5 memorandum June 17, 2009

The memorandum does not really make it any easier for people to apply for EB-5’s. Immigrant organizations and several supporting Senators have long thought that the requirements on the EB-5 need to be relaxed to foster an environment of entrepreneurship and growth in the country - much needed in today’s economy where the only thing that separates the US from other nations is the ability to innovate. Curbing the ability of immigrants that carry a healthy spirit of entrepreneurship overall as demonstrated by the number of startups that involve immigrants, has the exact opposite effect.

Several people in pending-AOS (Adjustment of Status - I-485) status are now getting called for what USCIS terms “initial interviews”. You could get called for such interviews even if your priority date is far from current. It appears that many of the ones that were called have switched jobs after 180 days of the filing of their I-485 application. It is likely that the questions will be around intent to work for original employer or whether the new job is same or similar.

We will keep the readers of this site informed as more information becomes available on this issue.

After the recent USCIS trends of L1 RFE’s, H1 extension rejections, Etc., this might be their next trend. More drama…USCIS has a way of keeping us young

The Murthy Law firm reported in their Bulletin today that I-140 premium processing is likely to be restored soon by the end of summer for $1000 per application.
What a relief for many! Now the hope is that they stick to their commitment…
USCIS also has a goal of adjudicating even regular I-140 applications in 4 months by September 2010…Way to go on that one!

All Charge- ability Areas Except Those Listed	CHINA-mainland born	INDIA	MEXICO	PHILIPPINES
Employment-Based
1st	C	C	C	C	C
2nd	C	01JAN00	01JAN00	C	C
3rd	U	U	U	U	U
Other Workers	U	U	U	U	U
4th	C	C	C	C	C
Certain Religious Workers	C	C	C	C	C
5th	C	C	C	C	C
Targeted Employ- ment Areas/ Regional Centers	C	C	C	C	C

Visa Bulletin for July 2009.

DISMAL. EXPECTED.

The H1B cap moved back from 45,800 ton May 29, 2009 o 44,400 as of June 5, 2009. Huh?

Does that mean some people that filed their applications withdrew them? Is that even possible?

Does that mean USCIS rejected some applications as problem filings? But even if they did that, do those not count towards the cap?

Or is it another mysterious USCIS reporting like the many we’ve reported in this blog in the past? July 2007 cutoff dates, May 2009 EB-2 retrogression, I-140 taking 2 years to approve, green card printing taking 6 months…the list goes on…

Rep. Michael Honda of California introduced in the House on 06/04/2009 H.R.2709, Reuniting Family Act bill, cosponsored by 55 other Congressmen and women.

This bill is a comprehensive immigration package that includes allowing gay Americans to sponsor their partners for residency. But it really is a lot more than just reuniting families.

If passed, the bill would:

• Recapture immigrant visas lost to bureaucratic delays;
• Reclassify the spouses and minor children of lawful permanent residents as immediate relatives;
• Address country limits and unreasonably long backlogs;
• Increase government discretion and flexibility in addressing numerous hardships caused by a provision that bars individuals unlawfully present in the United States from utilizing our legal immigration system;
• Provide relief for certain orphans and widows of US citizens or lawful permanent residents, and;
• Exempt certain veterans from the Philippines from immigrant visa limits.

This quote from http://www.advocate.com/news_detail_ektid88218.asp talks about how important this bill is:

A spokesperson for Immigration Equality, a group that lobbies on behalf of same-sex couples, called the inclusion of LGBT families in Representative Honda’s bill “historic.”

“This bill has the largest coalition of immigrant and civil rights groups supporting it that I have seen in a long time,” said Steve Ralls, Immigration Equality director of communications. “This is momentous for our community as a whole to be included with this broad coalition in a bill that will set the tone for comprehensive immigration reform.”

I certainly hope this one goes through. Seems to have a lot of support - just based on the pretext of the bill, it’s a no-brainer. Noone, not even the USCIS and DOL, with their archaic laws, will want to keep families separated. Giving their fair rights once they are together is a totally different issue but this will be an important first step.
What are your thoughts on this bill. Do you think it will go through?

Many have written to us about this horrible event. Another inexplicable move by USCIS putting the lives and hopes of many Indian immigrants in trouble. Thankfully, all other countries are safe so far.

The bulletin is available at June 2009 visa bulletin

Reactions to this on forums and in blogs has been as expected - shock. But well, us immigrants are sort of used to that. USCIS has always kept us on the edge of our seats, whether it is the cutoff dates, or address changes, or approvals of I-140 that take 2 years at times.

This move, in short, means there is very little hope for any further EB2 approvals until October 2009. Even after that, there is no saying how much will open up. For Eb3, life remains just as hopeless as it ever was. We’ve been saying this for a while now that green card approval for EB3 Indian immigrants will take another 5+ years at the current rate. Remember that many of them have been waiting 5 years already! The trouble is that USCIS knows that but still doesn’t seem to care.

• *** This post was contributed by corina arama ***

I would like to do something, as pointless as it may seem, I’m an H4 and have all the time in the world until my work permit will come … 6-10 years? I searched for the website of the Legal Immigration Lobby in order to volunteer somehow, but found nothing, there is no such organization. Please give me some suggestions … a petition maybe?