The U.S. Department of State (DOS) has just released the September 2007 Visa Bulletin, and we are pleased to report that some employment-based (EB) immigrant visa numbers, unexpectedly, will be available on September 1, 2007. As you are likely aware, the August Visa Bulletin lists all EB categories as unavailable, and projections were that no EB immigrant visas would be available until at least the beginning of the new fiscal year, which is October 1, 2007. In a surprise reversal, DOS explains in the Visa Bulletin that due to return of unused July immigrant visa numbers by U.S. consulates, they have been able to re-establish cutoff dates for some EB categories. This comes as a welcome surprise, as it was expected that no EB numbers would be available until October 1st at the earliest.

While some EB numbers will be available in September, it is important to note that priority date cutoffs have been set in all categories, and some categories will remain unavailable. The EB1 category has a priority date of January 1, 2007 for all nationalities. EB2, for all countries other than China and India, is backlogged to January 1, 2007. The EB2 priority date for China is January 1, 2006, and the EB2 priority date for India is January 1, 2004. For all countries other that China, India and Mexico, the EB3 priority date is August 1, 2002. EB3 remains unavailable for China, India and Mexico in September.

In order to file an adjustment of status (AOS) or I-485 application under the September Visa Bulletin, an applicant must have a priority date that is earlier than the published cutoff dates for the applicant's EB category and country of nationality.

The September visa availability means that some individuals who were not eligible to file their EB AOS applications before the extended August 17, 2007 deadline under the revised July Visa Bulletin may only have to wait until September 1, 2007 to file their AOS applications. However, we would note that many persons who were able to file their AOS applications before August 17, particularly those from India and China, will not be eligible to file their AOS applications under the September Visa Bulletin. For example, any person with a 2007 priority date will not be eligible under the September cutoff dates. Also, any person who has an EB3 priority date after July 31, 2002 would not be eligible to file an AOS application under the September Visa Bulletin.

The fact that some numbers will be current in September also means that the USCIS and the DOS will presumably continue to process cases and that we should continue to see some AOS cases processed to completion. This will be welcome news for some individuals whose cases are beyond processing times.

Jackson & Hertogs will continue to update clients as new information becomes available.

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