Immigration News Update 6/1 - 6/24

Senate CIR Bill: CIR bill has been introduced in Senate. As of  June  21, 478 amendments (changes) were introduced to the bill. However only about 20 amendments have been voted on so far. The senate leaders are confident that they can pass the bill in Senate by July 4. Latest reports says that they have around 70 votes to pass the bill (only 60 votes is required to pass the bill).

House CIR Bill: House leaders have made a decision to not take up Senate CIR bill. They however are still not clear on which direction to go: piecemeal bills or another comprehensive reform bill. The House Judiciary Committee have started working on following piecemeal bills: HR 1773, 1760, 1812, 1923 and 2131.

You can read about the current state of CIR bill here: http://blog.mygcvisa.com/2013/05/current-state-of-cir-bill-part-3.html

AILA Conference: American Immigration Lawyers Association will have their annual conference from June 26 to 29 in San Francisco, CA. Hopefully we can get more information from Charles Oppenheim about future visa bulletin date movements for EB/FB categories. You can view more details about the conference here: http://www.aila.org/content/default.aspx

CBO Report: CBO did an analysis of Senate CIR bill and came to the following conclusion. Enacting S. 744 would:

• Increase the size of the labor force and employment,
• Increase average wages in 2025 and later years (but decrease them before that),
• Slightly raise the unemployment rate through 2020,
• Boost the amount of capital investment,
• Raise the productivity of labor and of capital, and
• Result in higher interest rates.

You can read the CBO press release: http://www.cbo.gov/publication/44345

Complete Cost Estimate Report: http://www.cbo.gov/sites/default/files/cbofiles/attachments/s744.pdf

USCIS Processing Time: USCIS updated their processing time on June 18. The processing time shown is valid as of April 30. Since a large amount of applications have been filed from May 1, 2013 till now in EB3 ROW, Mexico and China (when dates moved by 18 months), the actual/latest processing time may be higher than the dates shown on USCIS websites for EB categories.

USCIS Monthly Statistics (as of April 30):

• Application for Immigration Benefits
• I-140 and I-485 Processing Statistics
• N-400 Naturalization Benefits

F2A Category: F2A Category is likely to be current in coming months. Due to lots of questions in blog comments and forum posts, we will be adding a blog post exclusive to this category in few days.

Old Immigration Form: Older version of following immigration form will no longer be valid. Please use the latest version of these forms: G-28, N-300 and I-751. A new edition of I-485 form is coming soon. Please visit the USCIS website for latest version of these forms.

USCIS updates RFE/NOID Policy: USCIS recently updated their policy on RFE (Request for evidence) and NOID (Notice of Intent to Deny). This new policy could be one explanation for huge volume of RFE issued to EB2 India for PD till August 2008. You can read it here: http://www.uscis.gov/USCIS/Laws/Memoranda/2013/June%202013/Requests%20for%20Evidence%20(Final).pdf