We are happy to relate that the June 2007 Department of State Visa Bulletin, just released yesterday, reflects significant movement forward for Employment-Based Second and Third Preference categories:

· EB2 for China advanced about eight months to January 1, 2006
· EB2 for India advanced about one year, four months to April 1, 2004
· EB3 for all areas of chargeability advanced by one year, ten months to June 1, 2005
· EB3 for China advanced by ten months to June 1, 2003
· EB3 for India advanced by two years to June 1, 2003

These processing dates are current for the period June 1 to June 30, 2007, and may change for the month of July and beyond.  The USCIS must receive the application(s) for adjustment of status, employment authorization documents and/or advance parole travel documents when the employee’s priority date is current.  Priority dates may move forward or backward during the adjudication period.  The priority date must again be current on the date of final adjudication to permanent residence.

H-1B Master's Numbers Exhausted: Count Hits 20,000

USCIS announced that, as of Monday, April 30, 2007, it had received enough H-1B petitions for foreign workers with a master's degree or higher from a U.S. institution of higher education, requesting exemption from the FY 2008 H-1B cap, to meet the congressionally mandated exemption limit of 20,000.

The USCIS received over 123,000 Fiscal Year 2008 cap subject H-1B petitions on April 2 and April 3.  As a result, a computer-generated selection lottery was implemented through which the USCIS randomly selected 65,000 H-1B petitions for further processing. Those petitions not selected for an H-1B visa number will be returned, with filing fees, to the petitioner or case representative. 

The USCIS just announced that the H-1B cap was reached on April 2, 2007-- the first day it accepted visa petitions for FY 2008.  The Service received approximately 150,000 petitions, so that there are now sufficient cap-subject H-1B cases in the pipeline to fill the fiscal year 2008 quota--a fiscal year that does not even start until October 1, 2007.  As a result, the Service will hold a computer-generated lottery for only those petitions it received on April 2 and April 3, 2007.  According to the announcement, we shall expect several weeks before the Service notifies petitioners whether or not their cases have been selected for processing.  The Service will return filing fees for those not selected by the lottery.