Priority dates in the upcoming July Visa Bulletin are expected to change drastically, both for better and for worse. In good news, the Worldwide Family 2A category for spouses and minor, unmarried children of green card holders will become current in July, thus erasing the 2-year backlog. Green card holders should make sure to sponsor your children and/or spouse as soon as possible; if your children and/or spouse are already sponsored, you should be applying for their green cards as soon as you can. Green card holders who are engaged/thinking about marriage, now is the perfect time to do so. Other Family categories will be advancing as well: specifically, the Family 1st preference category will be advancing by 3 weeks. All Family categories will be advancing anywhere from 2 ½ to 3 ½ months. However, the F2A category isn’t the only category that will be current in July.
The Employee-Based 3rd Category for Filipinos, which hasn’t been current for many years, will finally be up to date upon the release of the July Visa Bulletin. This applies to teachers, engineers, doctors, nurses, health care workers, accountants, etc. who have been sponsored by a U.S.-based employer. For those who have been in the U.S. on a temporary work visa, if your employer has filed an I-140 visa petition on your behalf, you should begin the preparations to file your I-485 application for adjustment of status in July. For those outside the U.S., make sure your employer files your I-140 visa petition using premium processing. Once these applications are approved, send the paperwork directly to the National Visa Center as soon as possible in order to get a green card interview sooner. Unfortunately, the family category for Filipino applications can be backed up for years, but this July, most of these family categories will advance 2-7 months.
Applications from China, while still very backlogged, will advance in the EB categories as follows: EB-1 by 10 weeks, EB-2 by 12 weeks, and EB-3 for professionals for 3 ½ months! However, those waiting on EB-5 should seek alternatives, seeing as these are frozen and will remain so for the foreseeable future.
In terms of not so good news, the Worldwide Employment Based 1st preference category, also known as the “Einstein Visas,” will continue to remain frozen at April 22, 2018. Similarly, all of the EB categories for Indian visas will also remain frozen, save for the EB-2, which crawls forward 5 days. Also in July, India will join China and Vietnam as one of the backlogged EB-5 Investor countries.
In conclusion, July is the perfect time for any and all green card holders to sponsor your spouses and children for permanent lawful residence. Waiting longer can bring about unwanted consequences. This sentiment also applies to qualifying Filipinos under the EB-3 category.
If you should have any questions or need more information about the ways in which the U.S. Immigration and Nationality Laws may impact you, your family, your friends or your colleagues, please contact the U.S. Immigration and Nationality Lawyers at the NPZ Law Group – VISASERVE – U.S. Immigration and Nationality Lawyers by e-mailing us at info@visaserve.com or by calling us at 201-670-0006 (x107). You can also visit our Law Firm’s website at www.visaserve.com