Current USCIS procedural changes adding delays to application filing for Green Card

December 02, 2015

The USCIS has once again changed its measures for specifying whether the overseas national applicants who are ready to file their job based or adjustment of status applications related to family sponsored preference might proceed onto conclusion stage of permanent residence (green card) process.

Current USCIS procedural changes adding delays and uncertainties to application filing for Green Card

This present course alteration disclose that the USCIS is not fully aligned with the US State Department (DOS) currently reformatted Visa Bulletin. The USCIS current changes to the procedures was announced on 14th October 2015 would result in holdup for the overseas citizens who are thinking of filing their applications for the status adjustment. For few of them, the delay would be only for the period of one week. Others might again discover themselves subject to bigger wait which is associated with backlogs of the visa.

The latest change to the procedure had come after the current changes to system of visa bulletin, which has already cause some disturbance. The DOS used visa bulletin for publishing the data about the latest availability of the immigrant visa on the monthly basis.  Overseas citizens in this process could apply for the green card depending on this data for determining when they might file their application for the adjustment of the status, the concluding state in the process of green card.

On the 9th September,2015, DOS had implemented the modifications permitting certain people for filing application for the adjustment of status even if immigrant visa is not yet available to applicant. This modification was welcomed by the overseas nationals in the job based preference category with the oversubscribed nations like India and China.

   
By permitting the overseas citizens for filing their adjustment of the status application quickly before they were allowed, this move had created the chance of some job and travel flexibility for the overseas workers who remain subject to the long backlogs of immigrant visa. The catch is that in order for gains of this change to be realized, DOS, that issues Visa Bulletin and the USCIS that states when the overseas citizens might actually move forward with filing their  adjustment of the status applications,  require to behave in concert with the other.

The Visa Bulletin of DOS has two charts of filing which covers the action dates for different cases related to immigrant visa. For the job based preference cases, the chart A specifies by which priority date the immigrant visa numbers are or would be available for different preference categories and nations. Chart B specifies when the overseas citizens might file their applications for the adjustment of the status.

The implementation of this extra step by the USCIS would mean that the overseas national applicants and the employers would have to wait for further one more week before getting the notice as to whether the applicant might proceed with the filing to adjust the status in the coming month. Until that the implementation of this latest step by the USCIS, the applicants was notified when the DOS has published the monthly bulletin within few days of the eighth day of the month.

For the Visa Bulletin of December 2015, the USCIS has posted its determination on 13th November 2015. And according to the USCIS current update, the overseas national applicants would not be able to depend on the DOS generated dates for filing the visa application chare and should use the application final action dates chart. The disconnect between the procedures of USCIS and the DOS means that the cut off dates in the effect would retrogress for purpose of specifying who is eligible to file the application to adjust status.

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