Month: July 2007

Did you file or would you have filed your adjustment of status application but for the “revised” visa bulletin? If so, whether you actually filed or not, you may be eligible to join the class of potential plaintiffs in the lawsuit being filed by AILF (if your priority date was current as of the original July visa bulletin issued on June 12, 2007).

New Frequently Asked Questions, a new Potential Plaintiff Questionnaire and the retainer agreement were made available today. These can be obtained from your immigration lawyer or by e-mailing ailf directly at: visabulletin@ailf.org. The answers to the FAQs explain everything quite clearly.

On June 12, the visa bulletin showed that almost all employment-based categories would be current in July. Thousands of eligible applicants rushed to have their medical examinations, complete questionnaires and compile the requisite documentation.

As we all know, on July 2, the visa bulletin was replaced not by a revised visa bulletin, but by a notice that no additional EB numbers would be available until at least October 1, 2007.

The DOS site has once again updated the visa bulletin page to read as follows:

“The Visa Bulletin for July 2007, posted on June 12, must be read in conjunction with the Update of July Visa Availability, posted on July 2.

The Update of July Visa Availability, posted on July 2, must be read in conjunction with the Visa Bulletin for July 2007, which was posted on June 12.”

The link can be found to the left. This looks like word games from an agency that is preparing to defend itself against lawsuits and a possible congressional inquiry.

In other news, a Chicago law firm has already filed a class-action lawsuit. AILF’s suit should be filed shortly and will allow those who were eligible to file but did not, to participate as plaintiffs. A revised questionnaire and FAQs will be made available soon to include this sub-class.

I inquired with AILF about the class-action lawsuit for the July Visa Bulletin mess. The latest news is that: (1) the suit will be filed soon, (2) plaintiffs do not have to be represented by counsel but will have to complete and submit a retainer agreement to be represented by AILF (of course, if you are represented, participate in the suit through your lawyer), (3) those who would have been eligible to file I-485 applications per the originally published July 2007 DOS Visa Bulletin but who do NOT file WILL be eligible to partake in the lawsuit (a separate questionnaire for such potential plaintiffs should be available through AILF as of early next week).

Please contact AILF (www.ailf.org) or your immigration lawyer for FAQs on the lawsuit and the potential plaintiff questionnaire (both to be updated this week, as well as the retainer agreement.

Today I found two interesting articles that illustrate two very different examples of our dysfunctional immigration system.  Microsoft is heading to Canada to open a research center and a five-year-old girl faces deportation in Boston.

As the broken US immigration system continues to cause financial and emotional hardship
for millions of aliens, both legal and undocumented, we pay a price. Companies are unable to being the talent they need to the US due to arbitrary low numerical limitations on non-immigrant work visas or because valuable employees have to face situations such as the July Visa Bulletin fiasco. These companies then resort to either outsourcing or moving their plants or offices overseas. Are these financial losses to the country taken into account when anti-immigrants crunch their numbers?  Please see the link to an article from www.vrunet.com about Microsoft opening a research center in Vancouver, Canada because they are unable to hire the foreign talent they require to the US.

On the other side of the spectrum, a five-year old undocumented girl faces removal from the United States to El Salvador and separation from her parents.  Please see the link to the Boston.com article.

I’ll divide the developments into “good news” and “bad news”.

First, the bad news:
– Cap-subject H-1B Visas for the 2008 fiscal year exhausted in a single day
– Senate comprehensive immigration bill fails
– I-140 Premium Processing temporarily suspended
– CIS announces dramatic fee increase effective July 30 (see our link)
– Department of Labor regulation effective July 16 states that: (1) employers must pay for all PERM legal fees and associated expenses, and (2) certified labor certifications will generally expire after 180 days
– Revised DOS Visa Bulletin leaves no EB numbers available until at least October 2007

The good news?

– Nothing recent to report.

Please feel free to comment if I missed any major developments.

On another note, the mainstream press is finally reporting on the July Visa Bulletin mess. Please see the link to the article in the New York Times.

In a rush to use up all of the EB visa numbers that would have been made available in July, the USCIS apparently approved thousands of cases in June. In fact, AILA reported that several CIS officials notified them that they were instructed by CIS HQ to pull all I-485 applications that had been pending for more than six months whether or not background checks had cleared (this information was NOT confirmed by USCIS HQ). As a result of this unprecedented action, many approvals of pending I-485 Applications can be expected in the coming week.

Another quirk in the CIS rush to approve I-485s is that some lawyers report having received phone calls in June from the CIS to answer questions on applications.  This is normally done by the issuance of a “Request for Additional Evidence” by mail.
If and when a televised congressional hearing takes place, I will be glued to C-SPAN…enjoy your fourth!

As word of the DOS July revised visa bulletin fiasco gets out, those affected are frustrated and want to take action. Many who were eligible to file their applications prior to the revised July visa bulletin are doing so, knowing full well that their cases will be rejected and that their next step will be to take part in a massive lawsuit against the government. This is one track.

Another track is congressional intervention. Those who were wronged by the visa bulletin bait and switch were legal immigrants, many of whom have waited for years and “played by the rules”. We link to a statement by Congresswoman Lofgren. This is a start. Those who caused this debacle need to be held accountable.

The following is not legal advice.  Call your lawyer to discuss the specifics of your case.  Here’s the latest news I have gathered on this debacle relating to those who have filed or plan to file their I-485 applications in July:

1.    For those who filed their I-140 Petitions and I-485 Applications concurrently and enclosed separate filing fee checks, the I-140 and supporting documents will be accepted by the CIS for processing and the I-485 and supporting documents and applications will be rejected and returned to the applicant with the filing fee checks;

2.    All I-485 Applications filed (even those received by the CIS on Monday July 2, 2007, before the revised visa bulletin was issued) WILL be rejected.  Filing fee checks will be returned.  The CIS has notified the public not to file.  Why will many lawyers be filing anyway?  See number 3…
3.    With proof of delivery, proof of rejection by the CIS, and evidence that a complete application was submitted to the CIS in hand, many lawyers will recommend to their clients that they be plaintiffs in a lawsuit that will probably be filed by AILF.  Those who were arguably entitled to file their I-485 applications (per the first July visa bulletin) but failed to do so, may not be eligible for a remedy.
4.    If EB numbers are unavailable, green card applications will not be approved until after such numbers become available.  However, either through settlement of through a judge’s order, interim benefits such as Employment Authorization Documents and Advance Parole (travel documents) may be made available to plaintiffs in the lawsuit.  The other possible advantageous outcome would be if those who participate in the lawsuit kept their original filing dates and were therefore ahead in the queue for EB numbers when they become available for their category.  Of course, this is all highly speculative at this point.  I will continue to update as more news becomes available.

Please see the link to the DOS to the left regarding the unavailability of EB numbers beginning  on July 2, 2007 (today).  Also please see the note from our friends at the USCIS regarding this development.  Numbers for all Employment-Based categories will be unavailable through at least October 1, 2007.

This is an unprecedented and unfair action by the government that will have to be resolved through litigation. I will post information on how to request to be a plaintiff in the lawsuit that will be filed by AILF (American Immigration Law Foundation) as soon as it becomes available.

This is the million dollar question. Many immigration lawyers and their staffs were working throughout the weekend filing as many I-485 applications as possible in the hopes that if the EB numbers retrogress, that cases received by the Service Center prior to the official notice of the retrogression (via a revised visa bulletin or whatever other concoction the government may come up with to reject cases) would be accepted for processing. Many cases will be filed this week, regardless of the guidance received. If cases are rejected, applicants may want to talk to their lawyers about the possibility joining a lawsuit that will probably be filed by AILF.

If numbers are not available but I-485 cases are accepted for processing, interim benefits such as work authorization and travel documents may be available while the adjustment application is pending. However, green cards will not be issued until the numbers become available.

I-485 cases filed should include all supporting documentation with the initial filing as the CIS will likely be looking for reasons to reject cases that are not necessarily related to the priority date not being current.

Cases with priority dates earlier than those posted in the DOS June Visa Bulletin (except in the EB3 Other Workers/Unskilled Workers category) that were properly filed, should be accepted for processing.

We should have more news on this craziness today or tomorrow.