October Visa Bulletin/DV Lottery
September 13, 2007
October 1, 2007 marks a true start of fall as well as the government's new fiscal year. Our employers may find it useful to forward this update to their foreign national employees.
October Visa Bulletin. The U.S. Department of State yesterday released the October 2007 Visa Bulletin outlining which priority dates are "current" for the month of October.
EB-1 first preference for all nationalities is current. EB-2 second preference worldwide is current; EB-2 for Chinese nationals current only with January 1, 2006 priority dates; EB-2 for Indian nationals current only with April 1, 2004 priority dates. EB-3 Third Preference worldwide is current only with August 1, 2002 priority dates; EB-3 for Chinese nationals is current only with September 1, 2001 priority dates, EB-3 for Indian nationals is current with April 22, 2001 priority dates.
What this Means for Cases Filed this Summer – Receipt Notices, Employment Authorization (EAD), Advanced Parole (AP). The good news is that for many cases filed in June and July, our office has received government receipt notices, with EADs and AP approvals well before the three-month mark. The not so good news is that the government must first issue receipt notices before it can then move forward and issue fingerprint notices (Biometrics Appointments). Receipt Notices also are required for us to contact the Service on case developments and track the case accordingly, despite our having federal express delivery verification that the case was timely filed with Service. We are carefully monitoring all of our cases and will contact our employers and affected employees as developments arise. We may later ask our employers to verify that their filing fee checks were cashed, as necessary.
Diversity Lottery. The registration period for this program begins at noon EDT on October 3, 2007 and ends at noon EST on December 4, 2007. For more information, please go to http://www.travel.state.gov/pdf/2009DVInstructions.pdf
We hope that this information is helpful.
