USCIS Visa Bulletin Prediction For Fiscal Year 2015

The American Immigration Lawyers Association (AILA) recently met again with Charles Oppenheim to discuss the current 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:

EB1 (All Countries): This category is expected to remain current throughout fiscal year 2015.

EB2 ROW (Rest of World): This category is expected to remain current throughout this fiscal year 2015.

DHS To Implement Haitian Family Reunification Parole Program

From USCIS: Starting in early 2015, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) will begin implementation of a Haitian Family Reunification Parole (HFRP) Program to expedite family reunification for certain eligible Haitian family members of U.S. citizens and lawful permanent residents of the U.S. and to promote safe, legal and orderly migration from Haiti to the United States.

Under this program U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) will offer certain eligible Haitian beneficiaries of already approved family-based immigrant visa petitions, who are currently in Haiti, an opportunity to come to the United States up to approximately two years before their immigrant visa priority dates become current.

“The rebuilding and development of a safe and economically strong Haiti is a priority for the United States.  The Haitian Family Reunification Parole program promotes a fundamental underlying goal of our immigration system – family reunification.  It also supports broader U.S. goals for Haiti’s reconstruction and development by providing the opportunity for certain eligible Haitians to safely and legally immigrate sooner to the United States,” said Deputy Secretary of Homeland Security Alejandro Mayorkas.

“The United States strongly discourages individuals in Haiti from undertaking life-threatening and illegal maritime journeys to the United States. Such individuals will not qualify for the HFRP program and if located at sea may be returned to Haiti.”

New E-Verify Service Combats Fraud, Protects Identity, Educates Workers

From USCIS: U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services Director León Rodríguez announced the launch of myE-Verify—a new website designed for employees.  myE-Verify is a one-stop shop for employees to create and maintain secure personal accounts and access new features for identity protection.

“Since its inception, E-Verify has provided employees with valuable online tools and resources regarding the employment eligibility verification process,” said Director Rodríguez. “myE-Verify signifies a significant step forward for added transparency, features, and identity protection.”

myE-Verify gives workers a free and secure way to participate in the E-Verify process by accessing features dedicated for employees, including Self Check and the Employee Rights Toolkit.  For added security, individuals will have their identities verified through Self Check, in order to create a myE-Verify account.

USCIS New Secure Ink

On July 1, 2014, U. S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) began using a new secure
blue ink for many of its secure stamps. The older secure red ink will be retired and no longer
used by USCIS on the effective date.

On July 1, 2014, USCIS began using the following list of stamps with secure blue ink:

• Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Parole Stamp

• Temporary I-551 Alien Documentary Identification and Telecommunication (ADIT) Stamp

• Refugee Stamp (Section 207)

• Asylum Stamp (Section 208)

• Initial / Replacement Form I-94 Stamp

USCIS FB I-485 & I-130 Processing Statistics As Of July 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	4,663	7,401	780	13,611
Pending but adjudication deferred	355,393	140,156	3,206	501,949
Customer action waiting	17,077	2,805	197	20,223
Completed	13,865	3,109	1,080	18,676
New receipts	15,745	4,259	544	20,691

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

USCIS US Citizen I-129F, I-130 & I-485 Processing Statistics As Of July 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	5,611	23,267	265,213
Customer action waiting	5,398	5,176	21,923
Completed	11,013	5,891	55,515
New receipts	720	4,186	44,080

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

	CSC	VSC	National
All Other Pending	4,031	1,066	19,147
Customer action waiting	947	74	2,181
Completed	1,376	98	3,209
New receipts	1,819	87	4,237

USCIS I-485 Processing Statistics:

USCIS Visa Bulletin Predictions From December 2014 - February 2015

For February 2015 Visa Bulletin prediction, please click here: http://blog.mygcvisa.com/2014/12/february-2015-visa-bulletin-predictions.html

Department of State have posted their visa bulletin prediction for the next few months:

FAMILY-sponsored categories:

Worldwide dates:

• F1:   Two to three weeks

• F2A: Three to five weeks

• F2B: Six to eight weeks

• F3:   One to three weeks

• F4:   Two or four weeks

EMPLOYMENT-based categories:

Employment First: Current

Employment Second:

• Worldwide: Current

• China: Three to five weeks

• India: No forward movement

Employment Third:

• Worldwide: Continued rapid forward movement for the next several months. After such rapid advance of the cut-off date applicant demand for number use, particularly for adjustment of status cases, is expected to increase significantly. Once such demand begins to materialize at a greater rate it will impact this cut-off date situation. 

• China: Rapid forward movement. Such movement is likely to result in increased demand which may require "corrective" action possibly as early as February.

• India: Little if any movement

• Mexico: Will remain at the worldwide date

• Philippines: Will remain at the worldwide date. Increased demand may require "corrective" action at some point later in the fiscal year. 

Employment Fourth: Current

Employment Fifth: Current

The above projections for the Family and Employment categories indicate what is likely to happen during each of the next three months based on current applicant demand patterns.

Readers should never assume that recent trends in cut-off date movements are guaranteed for the future, or that "corrective" action will not be required at some point in an effort to maintain number use within the applicable annual limits.

The determination of the actual monthly cut-off dates is subject to fluctuations in applicant demand and a number of other variables.

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

USCIS EB I-140 Processing Statistics 

	TSC	NSC	National
Pending	14,523	11,201	25,786
Customer Action Wait	1,703	1,521	3,224
Completed	4,577	3,325	7,903
New Receipt	5,074	3,756	8,830

USCIS EB I-485 Processing Statistics

December 2014 Visa Bulletin Predictions

For November 2014 Visa Bulletin And Analysis, please click here: http://blog.mygcvisa.com/2014/10/november-2014-visa-bulletin.html

For the official December 2014 Visa Bulletin, please click here: http://blog.mygcvisa.com/2014/11/december-2014-visa-bulletin.html

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

Quick Summary:

• EB1, EB4, EB 5: Current
• EB2 Rest Of World: Current
  EB2 China: 1-2 months
  EB2 India: 0 day. Please see article 1. Also see article 2.
• EB3 (ROW, Mexico): 6-12 months. Please see article.
  EB3 China: 6-12 months
  EB3 India: 0-1 week
  EB3 Philippines: 6-12 months. Please see article.
• FB categories: 1 to 12 weeks Please see article.
• F2A: 3-5+ weeks. Please see article.

Family Based:

Family-Sponsored	All Chargeability Areas Except Those Listed	CHINA- mainland born	INDIA	MEXICO	PHILIPPINES
F1	01JUL07	01JUL07	01JUL07	22JUL94	01DEC04
F2A	08APR13	08APR13	08APR13	15NOV12	08APR13
F2B	22FEB08	22FEB08	22FEB08	22OCT94	01FEB04
F3	22DEC03	22DEC03	22DEC03	08NOV93	15JUN93
F4	22FEB02	22FEB02	22FEB02	01MAR97	01JUN91

Employment Based:

November 2014 Visa Bulletin Analysis

For November 2014 Visa Bulletin, please click here: http://blog.mygcvisa.com/2014/10/november-2014-visa-bulletin.html

Please see below analysis of November 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 moved forward by 3 weeks in this visa bulletin. It is likely to continue to move forward around 3 to 5 weeks per month.

EB2 India: Also as expected, EB2 India category retrogressed exactly to 15FEB05. We had earlier posted a blog post that EB2 India quota has been used up for fiscal year 2014. This category may not move forward for the next few months.

We have added a blog post exclusive to EB2 India movement in fiscal year 2014. As many of you expected, retrogression was expected 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.

November 2014 Visa Bulletin

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

For analysis of November 2014 Visa Bulletin, please click here: http://blog.mygcvisa.com/2014/10/november-2014-visa-bulletin-analysis.html

November 2014 Visa Bulletin has been released (valid from November 1 to November 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	08JUN07	08JUN07	08JUN07	08JUL94	01NOV04
F2A	01MAR13	01MAR13	01MAR13	22SEP12	01MAR13
F2B	01JAN08	01JAN08	01JAN08	08SEP94	01JAN04
F3	08DEC03	08DEC03	08DEC03	01NOV93	08JUN93
F4	08FEB02	08FEB02	08FEB02	15FEB97	01MAY91

Employment Based:

Some Biometric Appointment Notices Issued in Error

From USCIS: Recently USCIS erroneously scheduled some customers for more than one Application Support Center (ASC) biometric appointment (Form I-797C).

If you have already attended an ASC biometric appointment, and received a second appointment notice for the same application type, please call the National Customer Service Center at 1-800-375-5283 (TTY for hearing impaired: 1-800-767-1833) to confirm that you do not need to return to the ASC to have biometrics collected again.

Deferred Enforced Departure Extended for Eligible Liberians in U.S.

From USCIS: U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) announced it will automatically extend Employment Authorization Documents (EADs) for Liberian nationals covered under Deferred Enforced Departure (DED). Current DED Liberia EADs that have an expiration date of Sept. 30, 2014, will now be valid through March 30, 2015.

This automatic extension of EADs follows President Obama’s announcement today of his decision to extend DED through September 30, 2016, for qualified Liberians and those individuals without nationality who last habitually resided in Liberia.

The six-month automatic extension of existing EADs allows eligible Liberian nationals to continue working in the United States while they file their applications. The extension also gives USCIS time to process and issue the new EADs.

Deferred Enforced Departure for Liberian nationals was scheduled to end on Sept. 30, 2014. However, President Obama determined that there are compelling foreign policy reasons to extend DED for eligible Liberian nationals currently living in the United States under the existing grant of DED.