August 11, 2008

Bill Proposed to Recapture Immigrant Visas Lost Due to Bureaucratic Delays

A bill has been introduced in the U.S. Senate by Rep. Zoe Lofgren (D-CA) and Rep. James Sensenbrenner (R-WS) to "recapture employment-based immigrant visas lost to bureaucratic delays and to prevent losses of family- and employment-based immigrant visas in the future".

There are annual numerical limits every year on the amount of immigrant visa numbers that can be used either at consular posts abroad or by individuals who adjust their status to lawful permanent residents. The worldwide annual limit for employment-based preference immigrants is 140,000, while the annual limit for family-sponsored immigrants is 226,000. Numbers that are not used by September 30, the end of each fiscal year, expire and cannot be reused in a subsequent fiscal year. Thus, delays in processing have meant that many otherwise available visa numbers go unused every year, making visa backlogs even worse than simple demand would dictate.

The bill proposes to “recapture” immigrant visas for both employment-based and family-based petitions from previous fiscal years in which not all numbers were used and to allow “expired” visa numbers to be used in subsequent years.