F2A Category - I130 NOA2 Approval

According to latest updates, USCIS is currently processing F2A I-130 application with PD around Nov 2011.

However one reader mentioned that USCIS has approved I-130 with PD around Nov 2012. This is more than 12 months jumps from current time.

Please see the link below:

http://www.mygcvisa.com/forum/default.aspx?g=posts&t=1068

Update (July 31):

An reader mentioned that her F2A I-130 with PD of March 2013 has been approved.

http://www.mygcvisa.com/forum/default.aspx?g=posts&t=1072

Multiple Immigration Forms Updated By USCIS

USCIS has revised and improved multiple immigration forms. If you are planning to submit any of these forms, please use the latest version linked below.

Please see the list of revised forms below:

• I-864 - Affidavit of Support


• I-131 - Application for Travel Document


• I-129 - Petition for Alien Fiancé(e)


• I-140 - Immigrant Petition for Alien Worker


• G-28 - Notice of Entry of Appearance as Attorney or Accredited Representative


• I-817 - Application for Family Unity Benefits


• I-102 - Application for Replacement/Initial Nonimmigrant Arrival-Departure Document

USCIS Immigration Scam

AILA (American Immigration Lawyers Association) have received multiple reports of a new phone scam, in which callers pose as officers of U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services.

The callers (scammers) have done their research before calling, so that they know the person’s name and address, and that the person is a not a citizen of the United States. These scammers are targeting applicants in various visa categories (F1, H1, L1, etc) or applicants outside US.

The caller then claims that USCIS has found discrepancies (inconsistent information) in the person’s immigration files and asks for personal immigration data such as an I-94 number, “A” number, or visa control number. This data should not be shared with anyone, as it can be used to get more of your personal information from USCIS or potentially to create false immigration documents in your name.

The caller next tells applicant that USCIS charges a penalty for such discrepancies. The caller instructs the person to send certain amount of money, via Western Union, to a specific non USCIS authorized address.

In rare cases the scammers have found out the address in their home country and setup a visit to talk to family and friends about the applicant.

USCIS US Citizen I-129F, I-130 & I-485 Processing Statistics As Of 05/31/13

For EB (employment based) statistics, please click here: http://blog.mygcvisa.com/2013/07/uscis-eb-i-485-i-140-processing.html

Please see below latest US Citizen Beneficiary Statistics released by USCIS:

USCIS I-130 - Immediate Relative Category Processing Statistics as of 05/31/2013

	CSC	VSC	National
All Other Pending	6,453	12,802	283,697
Customer action waiting	2,290	2,141	4,432
Completed	2,232	2,175	33,120
New receipts	100	74	54,380

CSC = California Service Center 
VSC = Vermont Service Center 
    
USCIS I-129F Processing Statistics as of 05/31/2013

	CSC	VSC	National
All Other Pending	7,924	12,036	23,388
Customer action waiting	2,552	2,459	5,011
Completed	2,766	2,105	5,180
New receipts	1,779	2,079	4,268

USCIS FB I-485 & I-130 Processing Statistics As Of 05/31/13

For EB (employment based) statistics, please click here: http://blog.mygcvisa.com/2013/07/uscis-eb-i-485-i-140-processing.html

Please see below latest FB (family based) statistics released by USCIS:

USCIS I-130 - Preference Category Processing Statistics as of 05/31/2013

	CSC	VSC	National
All Other Pending	5,094	10,893	21,106
Pending but adjudication deferred	376,175	127,200	508,840
Customer action waiting	3,210	4,081	7,293
Completed	5,551	4,524	10,403
New receipts	15,138	11,195	27,717

This table will help you understand why the I-130 processing time in CSC for F2A is around 18 months.

CSC = California Service Center
VSC = Vermont Service Center 
 
USCIS FB I-485 Processing Statistics as of 05/31/2013

USCIS EB I-485 & I-140 Processing Statistics As Of 05/31/13

USCIS I-140 Processing Statistics as of 05/31/2013

	TSC	NSC	National
Pending	6,799	3,053	9,907
Customer action waiting	1,453	3,120	4,573
Completed	3,548	3,637	7,186
New receipts	3,365	2,191	5,556

USCIS EB I-485 Processing Statistics as of 05/31/2013

DACA Processing Statistics As Of 6/30/13

If you dont know what DACA is, please read FAQ for Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals

The following show total receipts and approvals as of 06/30/2013. This update also shows the applicants by country.

Total Received: 557,412 (May 30: 539,128; April 30: 515,922)
Total Accepted: 537,662 (May 30: 520,157; April 30: 497,960)

Approvals: 400,562 (May 30: 365, 237; April 30: 291,859)
Denied: 5383 (May 30: 3816; April 30: 2352)

The following is the trend: Total applications received show a slow-down; however in last 3 month, the USCIS approved over 130,000 applications.

Data below was generated on July 10, 2013.

Tip: Click image to enlarge.

Top 10 Countries of Origin: Asian countries include India, Pakistan, Philippines and South Korea.

Predictions: Visa Bulletin September 2013

For August 2013 Visa Bulletin, please click here: http://blog.mygcvisa.com/2013/07/visa-bulletin-august-2013.html 

For September 2013 Visa Bulletin, please click here: http://blog.mygcvisa.com/2013/08/visa-bulletin-september-2013.html

Please see below September 2013 Visa Bulletin Predictions (for both Family Based and Employment Based):

Quick Summary:

• EB1, EB4, EB 5: Current
• EB2 Rest Of World: Current
  EB2 China: 1-3 weeks (still behind EB3 China)
  EB2 India: It could move between Feb and Apr 2008. See article: EB2 India Analysis & Prediction.
• EB3 (ROW, China, Mexico): 0 day. Please see article.
  EB3 India: 1-3 weeks
  EB3 Philippines: 2 weeks
• FB categories: 1 week to 6 months
• F2A: Current. Please see article.

Please Note: These numbers includes the 18,000 additional unused visas from FB category to EB category. USCIS have to use them up by September visa bulletin

Family Based:

Family-Sponsored	All Chargeability Areas Except Those Listed	CHINA- mainland born	INDIA	MEXICO	PHILIPPINES
F1	15NOV06	15NOV06	15NOV06	08SEP93	01JUL01
F2A	C	C	C	C	C
F2B	08JAN06	08JAN06	08JAN06	01APR94	01JAN03
F3	22JAN03	22JAN03	22JAN03	08MAY93	08DEC92
F4	08JUL01	08JUL01	08JUL01	01OCT96	22JAN90

Employment Based: 

Analysis: Visa Bulletin August 2013

For August 2013 Visa Bulletin, please click here: http://blog.mygcvisa.com/2013/07/visa-bulletin-august-2013.html

EB1: All EB1 categories are current and should continue to remain current this fiscal year.

EB4: This category also continues to remain current.

EB5: This category continues to remain current. Since demand is 75% higher than last fiscal year (according to Charles Oppenheim), there is a possibility of retrogression in FY 2014.

EB2 ROW: This category continues to remain current. Charles Oppenheim had mentioned possibility of EB2 ROW retrogressing in Summer. However due to spillovers from EB and FB category, this category continues to remain Current. However, due to retrogression in EB2 ROW last year and increase demand, it would be consuming more visas than it did last fiscal year.

EB2 India: As expected there was a huge jump (over three years) in EB2 India to 01JAN08. This was due entirely to spillovers from other EB categories. FB spillover was tiny at 361 visas. There is a very high probability that dates could move to  Feb-Apr 2008 in Sept VB. Please see article for more details about EB2 India movement in FY 2014.

The demand is EB2 India is expected to increase by few thousands as new EB2 applicants file I-485/CP and EB3 India applicants ports to EB2 India.

EB2 China: Surprisingly EB2 China did not move at all. Most of the EB spillovers was consumed by EB2 India. It is likely that EB2 China has nearly used up its annual quota of visas. Hence it could move forward by 1-3 weeks in Sept VB.

Visa Bulletin August 2013

For August 2013 Visa Bulletin Analysis, please click here: http://blog.mygcvisa.com/2013/07/analysis-visa-bulletin-august-2013.html

August 2013 Visa Bulletin have been officially released (valid from August 1 to August 31 only). Please see below for more details.

Dates for EB2 China, EB3 China, EB3 India, EB3 ROW, EB3 Mexico, F2B Philippines and F4 Mexico did not move at all.

Family Based:

Family-Sponsored	All Charge-ability Areas Except Those Listed	CHINA- mainland born	INDIA	MEXICO	PHILIPPINES
F1	01SEP06	01SEP06	01SEP06	01SEP93	01JAN01
F2A	C	C	C	C	C
F2B	01DEC05	01DEC05	01DEC05	01FEB94	22DEC02
F3	08DEC02	08DEC02	08DEC02	01MAY93	01DEC92
F4	22JUN01	22JUN01	22JUN01	22SEP96	08JAN90

Employment Based:

August 2013 Demand Data

Department of State (DOS) did not publish the August 2013 Demand Data. Demand data is used by DOS to calculate the monthly visa bulletin dates. If you are not familiar with demand data, please see this article: What is Demand Data?

There should not be any major changes in the August 2013 Demand Data.

EB2 India: EB2 India demand would be around 500 till Jan 2005. Based on huge amount of expected spillovers, EB2 India could finally move forward to around 08SEPT07 to 01JAN08. For those not familiar, EB2 India has not moved at all since last October. Please see article.

EB3 ROW: The  real demand for EB3 ROW/Mexico/China will not show up in Demand Data till Oct/Nov Demand Data. This is because demand data only contains preadjudicated cases (and CP cases). These categories moved by 18 months since May 1. Currently it takes about 4+ months to process I-485 and preadjudicate case. Hence demand data for these categories would continue to be low.

The most accurate data would show up in the I-485 pending inventory. However the latest version has data only till April 2.

Latest PERM Statistics - June 2013

What Is Demand Data?

Every month Department Of State releases demand data which is used to set visa bulletin cut off dates. This blog post gives more details about this document.

Q. What is Demand Data?
A. Demand Data is monthly data released by Department Of State (DOS) which includes preadjudicated cases from USCIS and some Consular Processing cases which have been "documentarily qualified".

Q.  Um...what does this mean?
A. The last stage of GC process is either (a) filing I-485 document (b) consular processing interview.  When the application has been processed successfully, GC is immediately assigned. However if visa number is not available, these cases in USCIS are called "preadjudicated" cases and in US Embassy are called "documentarily qualified" cases.

Demand data includes these preadjudicated and documentarily qualified cases.

Q. Why is visa number not available?
A. Visa allocation is based on supply and demand. Every year each EB and FB category have a fixed supply. However if demand is higher than supply, dates could retrogress. Hence by the time I-485 application is processed (which could take 4-8 months), VB date could retrogress. If it retrogress, then visa number is considered to be not available.

Q. Is Demand Data available for both EB and FB category?
A. Currently DOS publishes Demand  Data for EB categories only. They had planned to release it for FB categories also (but they havent done it yet).

FB Category - Frequently Asked Questions (Updated)

Since we have received a lot of questions in forum and blog comments about F2A category, we have decided to write a blog post for FB categories. It would also be helpful to EB categories.

This article has special emphasis on F2A category which is expected to be current in coming months and is expected to remain "Current" till the October 2013 Visa Bulletin.

Q. What does "Current" mean?
A. If Visa Bulletin has a "C" besides any category/country, it means that category/country is current. Current means that visa bulletin cutoff date for F2A category is Aug 2013 (instead of Oct 2011). Please see two options below:

(1) If you live within US: You can file I-485 application even if I-130 application is pending.

(2) If you live outside US: You should not file I-485. You will have to wait for I-130 to be approved. Once it is approved and PD is current, you do not have to do anything else. NVC will schedule your interview.

For NVC/Consular processing, please click here: http://blog.mygcvisa.com/2013/09/nvc-consular-processing-steps.html

Q. Why is F2A category becoming Current?
A. There has been a large amount of visas wasted in this category in FY2009, FY 2010 and FY 2012. To prevent this waste, DOS would most likely make this category as "current" in either August or September VB. This will help them build a "pipeline" of cases after applicants file I-485 applications. In FY 2012, over 18,000 visas were wasted in FB category.

Here are more details on how many visas were wasted in F2A category:

Annual approx visas allotted to F2A category by law: 87,934. However actual visas allotted in the last 5 fiscal years was much below 87,934 quota. More details below by fiscal year:

FY 2012: 77,300 (visa wasted: 10,000+ )
FY 2011: 81,728 (visa wasted: 6,000+ )
FY 2010: 60,652  (visa wasted: 27,000+ )
FY 2009: 75,075 (visa wasted:  12,000+)
 
Source: http://www.travel.state.gov/visa/statistics/statistics_1476.html. Select year and then click on heading for V section.

Q. How long would F2A category remain current?
A. It is likely to remain current till Oct or Nov VB. Once enough demand has been generated, it is likely to retrogress and then continue to move forward slowly. How far it retrogress depends on how many applications are filed in the next few months.

Q. Why are some other FB categories moving slowly?
A. Visa allocation is based on supply and demand. The supply is fixed by law for each FB categories. The demand however can change every month. If the demand is higher in some months, the dates would move slowly (since supply is fixed, though demand is higher). In F2A category, the current demand is low, hence dates are moving faster.

Q. What is difference between I-485 and consular processing?
A. If you are inside US, you can either file I-485 application or go for consular processing. If you are outside US, you can only go for consular processing.

Note: You can either file I-485 or do consular processing. You cannot typically do both.

Q. Can applicant outside US go for consular processing interview when I-130 is pending?
A. For FB category, currently you have to wait for I-130 to be approved before you can go for consular processing interview. Please see next question.

Q. What are the complete steps for NVC/consular processing?
A. Please see this: http://blog.mygcvisa.com/2013/09/nvc-consular-processing-steps.html

Also please see this article from USCIS: http://www.uscis.gov/portal/site/uscis/menuitem.eb1d4c2a3e5b9ac89243c6a7543f6d1a/?vgnextoid=62280a5659083210VgnVCM100000082ca60aRCRD&vgnextchannel=62280a5659083210VgnVCM100000082ca60aRCRD