Department of State Issues December 2007 Visa Bulletin

The United States Department of State (DOS) has released its December 2007 Visa Bulletin. The Visa Bulletin sets out per-country priority date cut-offs that regulate the flow of adjustment of status (AOS) and consular immigrant visa applications. Foreign nationals may file applications to adjust status to permanent resident or obtain approval of an immigrant visa application at an American embassy or consulate abroad, provided their priority dates are before the cut-off dates specified by the DOS.

What Does the December 2007 Bulletin Say?

For December 2007, all EB-1 categories are current.

Priority dates are current in December for most foreign nationals in the EB-2 category.

For December 2007, there is a significant increase in retrogression for Indian and Chinese nationals. The relevant priority date cut-offs for Indian and Chinese nationals in the EB-2 category are as follows:

India: January 1, 2002 (backward movement two years and three months )
China: January 1, 2003 (backward movement of three years)

Priority date cut-offs for nationals of all other countries in the EB-2 category are current.

There is a continued backlog in the EB-3 category.

For December 2007, the relevant priority date cut-offs for foreign nationals in the EB-3 category are as follows:

China: October 15, 2001 (forward movement of six weeks)
India: May 1, 2001 (forward movement of eight days)
Mexico: April 22, 2001 (no change)
Philippines: September 1, 2002 (forward movement of one month)
Rest of the World: September 1, 2002 (forward movement of one month)

How This Affects You

Priority date cut-offs are assessed on a monthly basis by the DOS based on anticipated demand. Cut-off dates can move forward, backward, or remain static. Employers and employees should take account of the immigrant visa backlogs in their long-term planning and take measures to mitigate their effects. To see the December 2007 Visa Bulletin in its entirety, please visit the DOS website at http://travel.state.gov/visa/frvi/bulletin/bulletin_3841.html.

Morgan Lewis will continue to monitor this process and will update you with any new information as it becomes available. If you have any questions about any of the issues raised in this Morgan Lewis Immigration Alert, please contact:

San Francisco
A. James Vázquez-Azpiri
415.442.1343
ajvazquez@morganlewis.com

Lance Nagel
415.442.1345
lnagel@morganlewis.com
 
Washington, D.C.
Eleanor Pelta
202.739.5050
epelta@morganlewis.com

Eric S. Bord
202.739.6040
ebord@morganlewis.com

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