Saturday, August 30, 2014

USCIS Customers Can Select Delivery Service to Receive Certain Documents

From USCIS: USCIS customers, whose petitions or applications are processed at a USCIS Service Center or the National Benefits Center and who wish to receive certain documents by overnight delivery service, must include a valid prepaid air bill or shipping label with their filing. We will use your prepaid air bill or shipping label whenever possible.  This option is ONLY available for receiving the following types of documents from certain USCIS facilities:

USCIS Service Centers OR the National Benefits CenterUSCIS Service Centers Only
  • Advance parole documents (does not include combination Employment Authorization Document/Advance Parole Cards);
  • Re-entry permits; and
  • Refugee travel documents.
  • Approval notices; and
  • Notices of denial.

To ensure your overnight delivery requests are not delayed, please remember to:
  • Include a valid prepaid air bill or shipping label when you submit your application, petition or response to a request for evidence. Providing a prepaid shipping label directly from the delivery service is the best way to avoid delivery errors. You will not need to write in an account number if you use a shipping label.
  • Enter your name in both the “to” and “from” fields on the air bill or shipping label.
  • Never list USCIS as the sender and do not mark “bill to sender.”
  • Pay all delivery costs in advance, and include the prepaid air bill or shipping label with your submission.


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Wednesday, August 27, 2014

Updated Visa Bulletin Predictions

The American Immigration Lawyers Association (AILA) recently met again with Charles Oppenheim to discuss the demand and expected movements in various visa bulletin categories.

Charles Oppenheim is the Chief of the Visa Control and Reporting Division within Department of State (DOS).

Please see the important details below as well as notes from another meeting:

EB2 India: This category advanced less than expected in September visa bulletin due to higher demand in EB5, EB1 and EB2 category. Hence the amount of spillovers to EB2 India was less. In addition, demand in EB2 India category has also increased due to (1) new filings and (2)  upgrades from EB3 India to EB2 India category.



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Monday, August 25, 2014

USCIS US Citizen I-129F, I-130 & I-485 Processing Statistics As Of May 2014


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

USCIS I-130 - Immediate Relative Category Processing Statistics:


CSC VSC National
All Other Pending 2,950 26,741 276,917
Customer action waiting 6,700 6,003 22,782
Completed 5,011 6,106 52,950
New receipts 803 4,393 46,352

CSC = California Service Center 
VSC = Vermont Service Center 
    
USCIS I-129F Processing Statistics:


CSC VSC National
All Other Pending 2,434 799 16,237
Customer action waiting 2,137 98 2,672
Completed 1,948 83 3,062
New receipts 1,798 83 4,038

USCIS I-485 Processing Statistics: 



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Friday, August 22, 2014

USCIS FB I-485 & I-130 Processing Statistics As Of May 2014

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

USCIS I-130 - Preference Category Processing Statistics


 CSC VSC NSC National
All Other Pending 134 8,586 952 10,657
Pending but adjudication deferred 360,276 134,013 3,943 502,358
Customer action waiting 14,542 3,178 276 18,084
Completed 17,039 2,216 966 20,930
New receipts 17,097 4,319 652 22,208

Volume in Texas Service Center (TSC) is currently low.

CSC = California Service Center
VSC = Vermont Service Center
NSC = Nebraska Service Center
 
USCIS FB I-485 Processing Statistics



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Tuesday, August 19, 2014

USCIS EB I-140 and I-485 Processing Statistics As Of May 2014


USCIS EB I-140 Processing Statistics 


 TSC NSC National
Pending 13,325 10,092 23,474
Customer Action Wait 1,050 1,044 2,094
Completed 4,281 2,950 7,232
New Receipt 4,602 3,394 7,996

The volume of cases in pending and new receipts categories increased at both NSC and TSC in the last one month.

USCIS EB I-485 Processing Statistics



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Saturday, August 16, 2014

October 2014 Visa Bulletin Predictions

For September 2014 Visa Bulletin, please click here: http://blog.mygcvisa.com/2014/08/september-2014-visa-bulletin.html

For October 2014 Visa Bulletin, please click here: http://blog.mygcvisa.com/2014/09/october-2014-visa-bulletin.html

Please see October 2014 Visa Bulletin Predictions below (for both Family Based and Employment Based):

Quick Summary:

Please Note: These numbers no longer include the 10,000 additional unused visas from FB category to EB category.These would be used up by September 2014 visa bulletin.

Family Based:

Family-Sponsored All Chargeability Areas Except Those Listed CHINA- mainland born INDIA MEXICO PHILIPPINES
F1 22MAY07 22MAY07 22MAY07 01JUL94 08SEP04
F2A 08FEB13 08FEB13 08FEB13 01JUN12 08FEB13
F2B 01OCT07 01OCT07 01OCT07 22JUN94 01JAN04
F3 01DEC03 01DEC03 01DEC03 01NOV93 08JUN93
F4 15JAN02 15JAN02 15JAN02 08FEB97 22APR91

Employment Based:



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Thursday, August 14, 2014

September 2014 Visa Bulletin Analysis

For September 2014 Visa Bulletin, please click here: http://blog.mygcvisa.com/2014/08/september-2014-visa-bulletin.html

Please see below analysis of September 2014 Visa Bulletin:

EB1: All EB1 categories are current and should continue to remain current for fiscal year. Demand continues to be around 1200-1400 every month (per the latest pending inventory).

EB2 ROW: This category continues to remain current. Demand in EB2ROW continues to be very low at an average of around 300-600 per month. 

EB2 China: EB2 China did not move forward  in this visa bulletin. However it is likely to continue to move forward around 3 to 5 weeks per month.

EB2 India: The fourth biggest jump was in EB2 India category which moved forward by around 3 months.  We have added a blog post exclusive to EB2 India movement in fiscal year 2014. As many of you expected, DOS has predicted retrogression in November due to large demand from (a) applicants porting from EB3 India to EB2 India  (since they have been waiting in EB3 India category for more than a decade) and (b) applicants who are filing I-485 for the first time.

Also please see this blog post for updates in EB2 (India, ROW and China) category.



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Wednesday, August 6, 2014

September 2014 Visa Bulletin

For August 2014 Visa Bulletin, please click here: http://blog.mygcvisa.com/2014/07/august-2014-visa-bulletin.html

September 2014 Visa Bulletin has been released (valid from September 1 to September 30 only). Please see below for more details.

Family Based:

Family-Sponsored All Chargeability Areas Except Those Listed CHINA-mainland born INDIA MEXICO PHILIPPINES
F1 01MAY07 01MAY07  01MAY07 01JUN94 01AUG04
F2A 01JAN13 01JAN13 01JAN13 22APR12 01JAN13
F2B 01SEP07 01SEP07 01SEP07 15MAY94  01DEC03
F3 15NOV03 15NOV03 15NOV03 15OCT93 22MAY93
F4 01JAN02 01JAN02 01JAN02 22JAN97 15MAR91

Employment Based:



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Sunday, August 3, 2014

Global Delays In US Visa and Passport Processing

A computer glitch in a key U.S. Department of State (DOS) database is causing delays in the issuance of visas and passports at U.S. consulates around the world. From DOS: "Department of State Bureau of Consular Affairs is currently experiencing technical problems with our passport / visa system.

This issue is worldwide and is not specific to any particular country, citizenship document, or visa category. We apologize to applicants who are experiencing delays or are unable to obtain a passport, Consular Report of Birth Abroad, or visa at this time."

The Consular Consolidated Database (CCD) is still performing below its normal operational capacity.  However, to give you an idea of the progress we have made, since July 20, our embassies and consulates have printed close to 250,000 nonimmigrant visas globally.  Based on our average production figures, we would have anticipated issuing closer to 480,000 nonimmigrant visas in that time period, indicating we have been able to print documents for just over half of all approved travelers.

It will take some weeks before we are back to normal turnaround times on issued visas. We continue to prioritize immigrant visas, adoption cases, and emergency nonimmigrant visa cases.  We are printing visas for these cases with very few delays.

Nearly all passports are being issued within our customer service standards, despite the system problems.  We are issuing passports for emergency travel without delay.

Frequently Asked Questions

Q:  What caused the system performance issues?  Hardware, software, or both?  Details?
On July 20, to improve overall system performance and address previous intermittent performance issues, we updated software per industry recommendations.  Our database began experiencing significant performance issues shortly after this maintenance was performed.

A root cause has not been identified at this time.  Current efforts are focused on bringing the system back to normal operations.  Once that has been accomplished, resources will be applied to determine the root cause.

Q:  What steps did we take to mitigate the performance issues?
Since July 20, our team has worked to restore operations to full capacity.  On July 23, the CCD was brought back online with limited capacity.

The Department of State is working with Oracle and Microsoft to implement system changes aimed at optimizing performance and addressing ongoing performance issues.

We are increasing the number of processed cases as our systems allow.

Q:  Has CA experienced these types of outages in the past? 
CA has experienced minor outages in the past, but not of this magnitude.
  


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