June 22, 2005

Update on EB2, EB3 and Family Application Priority Dates

Family: Demand for numbers by USCIS remains high as they continue their efforts to reduce pending adjustment of status cases. However such demand has not reached a level that would prohibit continued cut-off date movement in most categories. Should the District Offices begin to significantly increase their rate of case processing, movement of the Family-sponsored preference cut-off dates could slow or stop.

Employment: USCIS offices continue to process significant numbers of Employment cases for applicants with priority dates well before the established cut-off dates. While Third preference cut-off date movement for the three oversubscribed countries is difficult to predict, it is likely that those cut-off dates will continue to advance up to a few months per month for the foreseeable future.

We are unable to comment on whether the Employment Third preference "Other Worker" cut-off date will advance during the remainder of FY-2005. This is due to uncertainty over the extent of USCIS demand in this category.

Current indications are that the FY-2005 annual limit will be reached for the Employment categories, and that the "pool" of numbers created by the American Competitiveness Act of 2001 will be exhausted by the end of this fiscal year.

Employment-based Second Preference should remain current for the remainder of FY-2005, but China and India might have EB-2 problems at some point after mid-way FY-2006. The July 2005 Visa Bulletin states that both Employment Third preference categories have reached their annual limit, and that further allocations will commence October 1, 2005, though it is not possible to predict potential cut-off dates for FY2006 at this time. Similarly, the July Visa Bulletin notes that all but Mexican 2A applications have been retrogressed until October 1, 2005, as the annual numerical limits have been reached.

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