Surprise Immigration Changes: Green Card processing backlog disappears? [Vanity]

USCIS ^ | 6/18/2007 | me

[doc30]

Is the U.S. set to grant employment based green cards to everyone who has been waiting to apply for the passt several years?

As some of you may know, I'm in the middle of the legal immigration process to the U.S. for the past several years. Everything has been going properly and I've been very patient, paying the expensive fees and making sure everything is done properly.

At www.uscis.gov, the case processing times can be monitored. Every month, the application dates currently being processed were advancing and for some of my paperwork (the permission to travel documents and the work authorization documents), the difference in dates were only a few weeks. The actual 'green card' was still about a year away.

I look today, and many of the dates have been pushed back over a year! But the 'green card' processing went from over a year away for me, to about 6 weeks! You can see it here at USCIS processing times and scroll down and see the line for I-485. That's the form for permanent residency based on employment. All of the backlogged green card applications now about to be processed and mine is anticipated in about 6 weeks.

Here's my point. There were tens, if not hundreds, of thousands of applications backlogging the system. In one month the backlog is gone and all the people waiting for years are about to get their green cards?

I checked the current visa bulletin at here and there are no employment backlogs anymore!

Being cynical, I looked at the Dept. of State's archives. The previous bulletin, from just one month ago, is here and it clearly shows a backlog of several years in certain cases!

Here is what I think. Reading the government websites, it was explained that the numerical limits of the past years were never really met and everyone now waiting can apply and will get approved in a couple of months. In other words, fewer green cards based on employment were issued than should have been and now everyone can apply!

Could this be some back door way to avoid having to increase the temporary immigration H1B visa numerical limits by fudging permanent immigration visa numbers? Can't bring in temporary workers so bring in permanent ones?

There has to be more to this than that. The new immigration fees are set to kick in. Did that play a role? And there is the pending amnesty bill that won't go away. Could someone be pushing everyone through the current immigration line in order to make room for all the illegals set to enter the system?

I will admit I'm a bit jaded by the amnesty proposals. Plus it's frustrating to play by the rules and, just before it's all done, the system gets turned upside down!

[SoCalPol]

Thanks Ali for the ping as I hit my head on the wall a few dozen times.

Cneck this out.

http://www.heritage.org/Research/Immigration/upload/wm_1509.pdf

[CHEE]

Take a look at this: http://michellemalkin.com/

[Old Professer]

It’s called, “gaming the system.”

[2ndDivisionVet]

Just say NO to Illegal Alien Amnesty!! Keep calling!! It’s NOT OVER!!

U.S. Senate switchboard: (202) 224-3121

U.S. House switchboard: (202) 225-3121

White House comments: (202) 456-1111

Find your House Rep.: http://www.house.gov/writerep

Find your US Senators: http://www.senate.gov/general/contact_information/senators_cfm.cfm

[AuntB]

I’ve tried researching all the visas and how their issued. Some Homeland security does, some the State Dept issues, no one can tell you much. And yes, I think they’ll push through to clear the back log. Last year they issued thousands of green cards to people they admitted they lost the files for...NO vetting.

Here’s some more on all that.
http://towncriernews.blogspot.com/2006/04/day-in-life-of-uscis-is-this-any-way.html

“A Day in the Life of USCIS”- (Is this any way to protect our nation?)

Letter from Mike Cutler, former INS agent

http://towncriernews.blogspot.com/2007/01/bush-admin-issues-thousands-more-h1b.html

Bush Admin. issues Thousands more H1B Visas than allowed by law!

http://towncriernews.blogspot.com/2006/09/how-many-h1-b-visas-government-wont.html

How many H1-B visas? The government won’t tell you!

[Nailbiter]

ping

[doc30]

Thanks for the links. My post was for employment based permanent immigration visas (i.e. the EB series), not the H1B temporary visas.

[doc30]

The decrease in processing time from years to months is too immediate to be other than suspicious and questionable...

Just got an e-mail from my lawyer on this. By making the numbers current, more people can apply. This means she is very, very busy now that many clients can apply that had been waiting for years. But she suspects that the March 2007 processing date for applications will retrograde (i.e. be pushed back) and won't advance due to the great volume of applications being submitted at this time. There is also talk that USCIS want's as many people as possible to file so they can get a lot of revenue from the higher applicaiton fees that just kicked in. USCIS is funded from application fees and not from tax dollars. So it may just be a case of follow the $$.

[ASA Vet]

Today the I-129F's have been added back on the CA processing center.
They advanced the date by one month, which still is meaningless since it doesn't reflect where they really are.

[doc30]

I saw the revised pages today, too. Everything makes more sense now. But the processing dates listed are useful. USCIS says to contact them if the current processing dates are past your priority date.

The only thing that bothers me is this business of a cut off date in the new immigration bill. Anyone with an application, employment or family based, that was submitted after this date will have to restart the process with the new system and be mingled with all the illegals applying. This cut off date is in 2005 with a pending amendment to change it to January 2007. I will be ticked if I get stuck having to reapply with illegal immigrants. The backlog expected from all the illegals applying is 8-12 years. I’ll be near retirement by the time I could get a green card with the way Congress is playing stupid with immigration!

[ASA Vet]

But the processing dates listed are useful.

Your situation is much different than mine. I can see why you're frustrated.
The dates I'm seeing for the I-129F say they're processing those received in Dec 06.
My petition was received in Feb 07 and has already been approved and sent to the Embassy.
The site date is wrong by a few months, so is useless in my much shorter duration case.