Employment Visas for the Fiscal Year 2022 (FY22) in the United States are exhausted. FY22 ends on September 30, and the United States Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) cannot consider any more I-485 (green card) applications until FY23, which starts on October 1st. The following is an overview of this situation.
How The Exhaustion of Employment-Based Visas Numbers for FY22 Will Impact Foreign Workers
The employment-based visa candidates affected by this include the following.
● EB-1 visas (highest preference)
● EB-2 visas (second preference [advanced degree or exceptional ability])
● EB-3 visas (third preference [skilled, professional, and other workers])
Applicants from all nations have been impacted by this exhaustion of employment visa numbers. However, Indian-born visa EB-2 applicants have been negatively impacted the most by this situation.
The visa availability date for Indian-born applicants of this visa category has retrogressed to April 1, 2012—nearly three years of change. This means that Indian-born EB-2 visa applicants would need to have applied for the visa before April 1st, 2012, to acquire EB-2 visas in FY23. Therefore, the waiting period for Indian applicants appears to be significantly greater now. This is because the waiting period for Indian applicants has increased to almost 10 years from the date of application to the issuance of an EB-2 visa if the visa dates move forward monthly of course this development will continue to spark particular interest in the EB-1 classification for Indian-born green card hopefuls who cannot take advantage of cross-chargeability.
A Branch Chief with the USCIS, Andrew Parker, recently declared that the visa numbers for Fiscal Year 2022 are nearly exhausted. Through Andrew Parker’s Statement, we learned that employment-based visa numbers for the EB-1 and EB-2 visa categories are currently exhausted for all nations.
Moreover, the EB-3 visas for all nations will exhaust the following week of the Declaration. Mr. Parker filed the Declaration on September 6th, 2022, in connection with a pending lawsuit against the USCIS in federal court.
There’s a high likehood that more foreign workers will file employment-based green card applications during the last few days of September. However, none of those applications can be approved until the next fiscal year, which starts October 1st, 2022. However, that does not mean that all applicants can potentially have their applications approved next month or even the next fiscal year. Only applicants that have available priority dates when their applications are adjudicated can have their green card approved in FY23. Most Indian-born EB-2 applicants most likely won’t get their visa in the following fiscal year because the visa ability date has retrogressed.
If you have any questions about how the immigration and nationality laws in the United States may impact you or your family members or if you want to access additional information about the United States or Canadian immigration and nationality laws, please feel free to the U.S. and Canadian immigration and nationality lawyers at NPZ Law Group. You can send us an email at info@visaserve.com or you can call us at 201-670-0006 extension 104. In addition, we invite you to find more information on our website at www.visaserve.com