On June 13, 2007, the U.S. Department of State ("DOS") released the Visa Bulletin for the month of July 2007. The July Bulletin indicated that the great majority of beneficiaries of employment-based (EB) Immigrant Petitions, including concurrently filed Immigrant Petitions, could file for adjustment of status for permanent residence effective for cases received by U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services ("CIS") today, July 2nd. Under longstanding U.S. government rules, such applicants could file their adjustment applications starting for government receipt on July 2nd and continue to file adjustment applications as long as they were received by CIS by the last business day of July.
Today, three dramatic events transpired. First, in the middle of the day, the U.S. Department of State ("DOS") announced "Effective Monday, July 2, 2007 there will be no further authorizations for Employment-based preference cases" due to CIS approving enough cases to reach the 2007 federal quota. The DOS notice also states that "Employment preference numbers will once again be available to these chargeability areas beginning October 1, 2007, under the FY-2008 annual numerical limitation." There is no re-posting of a new July 2007 Visa Bulletin - the July 2007 Visa Bulletin as released on June 13th is still on the US DOS website showing the relevant cut-offs as current.
Second, CIS announced shortly thereafter that the "Department of State has revised its July Visa Bulletin to reflect that all available employment-based immigrant visas have been allocated for fiscal year 2007. As a result, beginning today, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) is rejecting applications to adjust status (Form I-485) filed by aliens whose priority dates are not current under the revised July Visa Bulletin."
Third, the American Immigration Lawyers Association (AILA) announced that it condemns the U.S. government's "bait and switch" and AILA is formulating strategy for litigation on behalf of immigrants. Our partners are members of AILA. Please click here for copies of all three announcements plus the original July Visa Bulletin.
This leaves everyone legitimately wondering whether to file for permanent residence in July or not to file in July, and whether to secure medicals if one has not done so already. For most, this will be a company and employee collaborative decision. We are collecting and synthesizing information regarding these developments from today and will be releasing a "question and answer" document in the next 48 hours which addresses these issues and helps our clients to make an informed decision.