Jul 3 2007

Employment-Based Preference Numbers No Longer Available

On Monday, July 2, the Department of State (DOS) issued a revised July 2007 visa bulletin that made unavailable visas for all employment-based preference cases. According to DOS, “the sudden backlog reduction efforts by Citizenship and Immigration Services Offices during the past month have resulted in the use of almost 60,000 Employment numbers. As a result of this unexpected action it has been necessary to make immediate adjustments to several previously announced cut-off dates.”

According to DOS, effective Monday, July 2, 2007, no further authorizations in response to requests for employment-based preference cases will be given. Individuals will now have to wait until October, when preference numbers are again available under the FY-2008 annual cap.

Last month, DOS announced that employment visa numbers were available for all individuals wishing to receive green cards sponsored by their employers (with the exception of unskilled workers). There was a great amount of excitement around this large-scale availability. However, the recent revision to the visa bulletin has completely limited this availability. We will keep you updated as information is published on this topic.