July 2, 2006

Adjustment of Status Fiasco

On Monday, July 2, 2007, the Department of State (DOS) issued a revised Visa Bulletin indicating that there will be no further employment based immigrant visa number available until the beginning of the next US Government fiscal year (October 1, 2007). DOS controls the issuance of immigrant visa numbers and issues a visa bulletin monthly based on anticipated use of immigrant visa numbers in various employment and family based immigrant visa categories. Specifically this means that all applications for adjustment of status including EB-1, EB-2 and the EB-3 categories will no longer be accepted as of today. As a result of an unprecedented number of adjudications processed by the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) in the month of June, the DOS has indicated that there are no more numbers available for fiscal year 2007. Apparently the USCIS worked all weekend to clear backlogs in the Service Centers and District Offices. A change of internal policy, which has not been formally announced by USCIS, allowed them to approve adjustment of status cases that had been held up for security checks pending for more than six months. These cases which were literally stuck in the system, were finally adjudicated after a careful review, but without a full and formal security clearance being returned by the FBI. This policy did not apply to nationals of "special interest countries" and those cases remain pending.

At this time, it is unclear whether applications delivered today, July 2nd will be formally receipted by USCIS or if they will be rejected based on the revised visa bulletin. For further information, please see link: http://travel.state.gov/visa/frvi/bulletin/bulletin_3263.html#. GT will provide more information on this situation as soon as it is available.

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