The Visa Bulletin

The Visa Bulletin for April 2009 was posted by the State Department earlier today. Screenshots posted below.

Family Preference Categories

Employment Preference Categories

D. EXPIRATION OF TWO EMPLOYMENT VISA CATEGORIES

Employment Fourth Preference Certain Religious Workers:

Pursuant to Section 2(a) of the Special Immigrant Nonminister Religious Worker Program Act (Pub. L. 110-391), the nonminister special immigrant program expires on March 6, 2009.

Employment Fifth Preference Pilot Program Categories (I5, R5):

Pursuant to Section 144 of the Consolidated Security, Disaster Assistance, and Continuing Appropriations Act, 2009 (Public Law 110-329), the immigrant investor pilot program expires on March 6, 2009.

The cut-off dates for the above categories are shown as “Unavailable” for April. Congress is considering an extension for each of these categories, but there is no certainty when such legislative action may occur. If legislation to extend either of these categories is enacted, the cut-off date for that category would immediately become “Current.”

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Please feel free to post your comments concerning the April 2009 Visa Bulletin below:

The Visa Bulletin for February 2009 was posted by the State Department earlier today. Screenshots posted below.

February 2009 // Family-Based Visa Bulletin

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February 2009 // Employment-Based Visa Bulletin

There weren’t any notes specific to the employment or family categories in the February 2009 Visa Bulletin.

The Visa Bulletin for January 2009 was posted by the State Department earlier today. Screenshots posted below.

January 2009 // Family-Based Visa Bulletin

January 2009 // Employment-Based Visa Bulletin

There weren’t any notes specific to the employment or family categories in the January 2009 Visa Bulletin.

Update Friday, March 14th, 2008: The April visa bulletin has officially been posted.

April 2008 // Employment-Based Visa Bulletin:

April 2008 // Family-Based Visa Bulletin:

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.]

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 60680-1029

Petitioners 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 60680-1029

The 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)

Hot off the press – March Visa Bulletin. I will post some commentary later today or tonight. Feel free to drop your comment below.

The most obvious development was the progress in the employment-based third preference (EB3). The cutoff date jumped ahead for “EB3 Philippines” and “EB3 All Chargeability Areas” (everywhere but China, India or Mexico).

What did the notes of the March visa bulletin say about this movement? Read more…

Employment-Based Visa Bulletin – December 2007:

Family-Based Visa Bulletin – December 2007:

Employment-Based Visa Bulletin – November 2007:

Family-Based Visa Bulletin – November 2007: