USCIS Announces New Visa Bulletin System for Employment-Based and Family-Sponsored Permanent Residence

U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) and the Department of State (DOS) have announced that beginning with the October 1, 2015 Visa Bulletin, USCIS will be following a new system for determining immigrant visa availability for applicants waiting to file for employment-based or family-sponsored permanent residence.  This new system will allow eligible foreign nationals to file an application for adjustment of status to permanent residence before an immigrant visa becomes available to them; however, the application for adjustment of status still cannot be approved until an immigrant visa becomes available (i.e. the "priority date" becomes current).

Previously, in order for foreign nationals to apply for adjustment of status to permanent residence, individuals would have to wait until their priority date was listed as current in the monthly Visa Bulletin, which for most employment-based applicants would be the filing date of their PERM labor certification application.  That date would be considered current if it was prior to the cut-off date listed in the monthly Visa Bulletin for the individuals country of chargeability and employment-based preference category.

Under this new system, USCIS will begin accepting applications to adjust status to permanent resident according to a new Visa Bulletin filing date chart, which will establish two separate cut-off dates: 

• “Application Final Action Dates” (the date when visas may finally be issued); and 
• “Dates for Filing Applications” (the earliest date when an applicant may be able to apply).

Foreign nationals with qualifying priority dates according to the “Dates for Filing Applications” chart will be able to file their applications to adjust to permanent resident status.  While the foreign national will not yet be eligible to receive permanent residence until an immigrant visa becomes available according to the “Application Final Actions Dates” chart, this new ability to actually file the adjustment application will allow qualifying individuals and their dependents to be eligible to apply for employment authorization (EAD card) and travel documents (Advance Parole), while waiting for their “Application Final Actions Date” to become current.  Additionally, certain individuals may be eligible for I-140 Immigrant Visa Petition “portability” once their adjustment of status application has been pending for more than 6 months, which will provide many individuals with greater employment mobility.  

While the adjudication of all I-485 applications to adjust status will still be subject to the same per-country and per-category quotas, and respective visa backlogs (especially for immigrants from India and China waiting under the employment-based categories), this new policy will provide immigrants with benefits while they wait for their immigrant visa “Application Final Actions Date.” 

This Visa Bulletin change acts upon the recent White House report on “Modernizing & Streamlining Our Legal Immigration System for the 21st Century” to provide greater certainty to foreign nationals and their families seeking permanent residency.