American Immigration Lawyers Association released an article regarding EB-2 visas on June 28, 2012. According to this article, on Tuesday June 19, 2012, Roberta Freedman, AILA Students & Scholars Committee member, discussed the Visa Bulletin, visa demand in the employment preference categories, and predictions for FY2012 and beyond with Charlie Oppenheim of the Visa Office. Here are some key points:

• In October 2012 (beginning of the 2013 fiscal year), the EB-2 cut-off dates for China-Mainland born and India, which are currently "unavailable," will move to August or September 2007 (China may be slightly better). It is unlikely that the cut-off dates will move forward at all for the first two quarters of FY2013. If they do, it will only be if the Visa Office is convinced that there is insufficient demand for the rest of the year. Mr. Oppenheim's office already has 17,000 EB-2 cases for natives of India, China, and worldwide with priority dates after January 1, 2009, pre-adjudicated.

• Applicants from China-mainland and India who filed will be waiting years for adjudication of their I-485s.

• The group of cases that were filed in July and August of 2007, when all employment-based categories were made "current," were all completed by November 2011.

• Mr. Oppenheim's office believes that there are 10,000 to 15,000 numbers used for upgrades every fiscal year. In March 2012, alone, over 3,200 numbers were used to approve China-mainland and India adjustments that were EB-3-EB-2 upgrades. The actual break down was about 2,800 from India and about 500 from China-mainland.

• If USCIS approves many pending cases during the month of June, the worldwide EB-2 category may retrogress or become unavailable for the rest of the 2012 Fiscal year.

• EB-2 worldwide will be current in October 2012.

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(06/28/2012)