|
|
|
|
SUBSCRIBE
The leading Copyright |
September Visa Bulletin Shows Significant Gains In F-2A And EW-3 Categories And Raises Questions Concerning Prior Retrogression Datesby Alan Lee
With the visa chart in the last month of fiscal year 2011, significant advances were seen in the F-2A category for spouses and children (under the age of 21 and unmarried) of lawful permanent residents and the EW-3 unskilled worker category. The former moved from 7/22/08 to 12/1/08 for all countries except Mexico. The latter moved from 5/1/05 to 8/1/05 for all countries except China and India which did not advance at all, remaining at 4/22/03 (China) and 6/1/02 (India). Other family and employment category advances were slight or none. In the family based categories, 3 the remaining 4 categories did not move at all remaining at 5/1/04 for the F-1 category of unmarried sons and daughters over the age of 21 of U.S. citizens; 7/1/03 for the F-2B category of unmarried sons and daughters over the age of 21 of lawful permanent residents; and 8/22/01 for the F-3 category of married sons and daughters of U.S. citizens. The F-4 preference of brothers and sisters of U.S. citizens moved one week for the world from 4/8/00 to 4/15/00 except for Mexico which advanced from 3/8/96 to 3/22/96 and the Philippines from 5/15/88 to 7/8/88. For employment based categories other than EW-3, the only category to move was EB-3 for skilled workers and professionals which advanced from 11/1/05 to 11/22/05 for most of the world except China and India with both registering one week advances to 7/15/04 and 7/08/02 respectively. EB-1 for extraordinary aliens, outstanding researchers, and multinational executives and managers remained current; EB-2 for advanced degrees, exceptional ability, and national interest waiver cases remained current except for both China and India static at 4/15/07; and EB-4 for certain religious workers remained current as did the EB-5 investor category. Slow immigrant visa movement is typical for September, a month when visa numbers run out for the fiscal year and visa categories occasionally retrogress or even become unavailable altogether. The only real surprise appears to be the F-2A category, which sprang forward over four months after having already made over a years jump in three months time from May's visa chart date of 6/8/07 to 7/22/08 in August 2011. Such rapid movement at the end of the fiscal year would seem to indicate a prior miscalculation by the Department of State in retrogressing the date so far back in January 2011 (moving the F-2A date from 8/1/10 in December 2010 to 1/1/08 in January 2011 and further retrogressing it to 1/1/07 in March 2011). One can only hope that the Visa Office can use a lighter thumb on the scale in the future in calculating the date to which a category should be retrogressed. © 2011 Alan Lee, Esq.
About The Author |
