[Update: Tuesday, June 10th -- The July 2008 Visa Bulletin was posted today by the State Department. Screenshots are below. I'll post some comments, so check back soon.]
Source: state.gov
If you have any comments about the July Visa Bulletin, feel free to drop them below.
Tags: Visa Bulletin
UPDATE - Monday, May 12th — The June Visa Bulletin was published by the State Department. Thanks to Justin for the heads up.
Source: state.gov
UPDATE - Friday, May 9th — Still no official June visa bulletin. As usual, the Mumbai Consulate has posted expected dates for the visa bulletin, see http://mumbai.usconsulate.gov/cut_off_dates.html (thanks KY).
Update - Thursday, May 8th — I haven’t seen any commentary from State Department officials about predictions for the June visa bulletin. So the next best thing is the notes from the May visa bulletin, which discuss employment-based visa availability:
E. EMPLOYMENT VISA AVAILABILITY
Many of the Employment cut-off dates have continued to advance more rapidly than might ordinarily be expected. This is a result of consultations with U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) regarding their pending demand, which is currently using approximately 90% of all Employment numbers. USCIS has indicated that they would prefer to review a substantial number of cases at this time to ensure that number use in the various categories can be maximized. Should USCIS projections of the resulting number use prove to be incorrect it may be necessary to adjust the cut-off dates during the final quarter of FY-2008.
What does that mean? I think it means visa numbers could retrogress or even become unavailable in the June/July/August/September visa bulletins.
Stay posted for the June visa bulletin, and feel free to drop your comments below.
Tags: Visa Bulletin
UPDATE April 11th, 2008: The May 2008 Visa Bulletin was posted. Thanks for the heads up KY.
Source: travel.state.gov
Tags: Visa Bulletin
Update Friday, March 14th, 2008: The April visa bulletin has officially been posted.
Source: travel.state.gov
Also, the notes of the April visa bulletin discussed the availability of visas for EB2 nationals of India,
D. INDIA EMPLOYMENT SECOND PREFERENCE VISA AVAILABILITY
Section 202(a)(5) of the Immigration and Nationality Act provides that if total demand will be insufficient to use all available numbers in a particular Employment preference category in a calendar quarter, then the unused numbers may be made available without regard to the annual “per-country” limit. It has been determined that based on the current level of demand being received, primarily by Citizenship and Immigration Services Offices, there would be otherwise unused numbers in the Employment Second preference category. As a result, numbers have once again become available to the India Employment Second preference category. The rate of number use in the Employment Second preference category will continue to be monitored, and it may be necessary to make adjustments should the level of demand increase substantially.
Feel free to drop your comments or questions below.
[Note. The first 75 comments below were written before the April visa bulletin was published on Friday, March 14th.]
Tags: Visa Bulletin
USCIS issued an update about I-130 filing instructions on February 19th. The text is below in blockquotes, but basically all stand-alone I-130 petitions should now be filed with the Chicago Lockbox. The Chicago Lockbox is two post office boxes in Chicago (both addresses are listed below). Of course, some couriers will not ship to a post office box and, of course, USCIS did not list a street address on their update. But don’t worry because AILA came through and provided the street address (located at the end of this post).
WASHINGTON—U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) has revised the filing instructions for the Petition for Alien Relative (Form I-130). Effective immediately, all petitioners filing stand-alone Form I-130s must file their petitions with the Chicago Lockbox instead of a USCIS Service Center. A USCIS Update was issued on December 3, 2007, encouraging petitioners to file with the Chicago Lockbox while the form was being revised. Now that the revision is complete, filing with the Chicago Lockbox is required.
Petitions filed with the Chicago Lockbox will be routed to, and adjudicated at, the appropriate USCIS Service Center. This routing will be based on the petitioner’s place of residence in the United States.
Two separate post office box addresses (see below) have been established that correspond to the appropriate USCIS Service Center (either Vermont or California) that will process and adjudicate the petition. Although Form I-130 must be filed with the Chicago Lockbox, petitioners will receive receipt notices from either the Vermont or California Service Center.
Petitioners who reside in Alaska, Arizona, California, Colorado, Guam, Hawaii, Idaho, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, Nevada, North Dakota, Ohio, Oregon, South Dakota, Utah, Washington, Wisconsin or Wyoming must file their stand-alone Form I-130s with the Lockbox using the following address:USCIS
P.O. Box 804625
Chicago, IL 60680-1029Petitioners who reside in Alabama, Arkansas, Connecticut, Delaware, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Mississippi, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, North Carolina, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania, Puerto Rico, Rhode Island, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, Vermont, Virginia, U.S. Virgin Islands, West Virginia or District of Columbia must file their stand-alone Form I-130 with the Lockbox using the following address:
USCIS
P.O. Box 804616
Chicago, IL 60680-1029The revised form and filing instructions are available through the USCIS’ Web site at www.uscis.gov.
And thanks to the American Immigration Lawyers Association (AILA), the street address for direct I-130 filings is the following:
U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services
Attn: FBASI
427 S. LaSalle - 3rd Floor
Chicago, IL 60605-1098
Source: USCIS I-130 Update // Chicago Lockbox (pdf)
Tags: Visa Bulletin