On September 9, 2015, the USCIS, in coordination with Department of State (DOS), announced revision of the procedures for determining visa availability for applicants waiting to file for employment-based or family-sponsored preference adjustment of status.

The revised process will better align with procedures DOS uses for foreign nationals who seek to become U.S. permanent residents by applying for immigrant visas at U.S. consulates and embassies abroad.

This revised process will enhance DOS's ability to more accurately predict overall immigrant visa demand and determine the cut-off dates for visa issuance published in the Visa Bulletin. This will help ensure that the maximum number of immigrant visas are issued annually as intended by Congress, and minimize month-to-month fluctuations in Visa Bulletin final action dates.

The Visa Bulletin revisions implement November 2014 executive actions on immigration announced by President Obama and Secretary of Homeland Security Johnson, as detailed in the White House report, Modernizing and Streamlining Our Legal Immigration System for the 21st century, issued in July 2015.

Two charts per visa preference category will be posted in the DOS Visa Bulletin:

*Application Final Action Dates (dates when visas may finally be issued); and
*Dates for Filing Applications (earliest dates when applicants may be able to apply). 

This will permit applicants to file their I-485 applications much earlier than otherwise anticipated, which will also permit them to apply for Employment Authorization Documents (EADs) and Advance Parole (AP) documents.  Consequently, employers will not need to keep filing extensions of a beneficiary's nonimmigrant status, such as H-1B or L-1, etc.

Further, this should also impact an applicant's ability to use I-485 portability.  Under I-485 portability, an individual with an approved I-140 and an I-485 application that has been pending for 180 days or more, may change jobs or employers without having to re-do the Permanent Residence process as long as the new position is "the same or similar" to the one on which the current U.S. Permanent Residence process is based. 

However, the ability to file an I-485 application sooner, does not mean that it will be processed any earlier.  A pending I-485 application cannot be processed and approved until the Application Final Action Date is current.  So, an I-485 application may be pending for several years before it is ultimately approved.

There will be additional information available on September 16 regarding changes in the Visa Bulletin, and I will send out a new alert if there any additional details of importance.

Each month, in coordination with DOS, USCIS will monitor visa numbers and post the relevant DOS Visa Bulletin chart. Applicants can use the charts to determine when to file their Form I-485, Application to Register Permanent Residence or Adjust Status.

To determine whether additional visas are available, USCIS will compare the number of visas available for the remainder of the fiscal year with:

*Documentarily qualified visa applicants reported by DOS;
*Pending adjustment of status applications reported by USCIS; and
*Historical drop off rate (for example, denials, withdrawals, abandonments).

DOS publishes current immigrant visa availability information in a monthly Visa Bulletin. The Visa Bulletin indicates when statutorily limited visas are available to prospective immigrants based on their individual priority date.

*The priority date is generally the date when the applicant's relative or employer properly filed the immigrant visa petition on the applicant's behalf with USCIS. If a labor certification is required to be filed with the applicant's immigrant visa petition, then the priority date is when the labor certification application was accepted for processing by Department of Labor.

*Availability of an immigrant visa means eligible applicants are able to take one of the final steps in the process of becoming U.S. permanent residents.