In a largely unanticipated move, the State Department (“DOS”) announced on Friday that it significantly rolled back the Adjustment of Status (“AOS”) application filing cut-off dates it established under the Obama Executive Action less than three (3) weeks ago. Specifically, on September 25, DOS released a revised visa bulletin for October 2015, superseding the bulletin that was originally published on September 9. The revised October Visa Bulletin contains new and earlier filing cut-off dates than those dates contained in the original October Visa Bulletin issued on September 9.
These revised filing cut-off dates are apparently a response to USCIS concerns over the Service’s ability to process such a huge volume of AOS applications. In response to such concerns, the “Dates for Filing Visa Applications” for certain visa preference categories, particularly the employment-based second preference (EB-2) category for China and India, have been significantly rolled back.
The retrogression of these filing cut-off dates will serve to dramatically reduce the number of individuals permitted to pre-file for Adjustment of Status on October 1 based on the originally published October Visa Bulletin. This sudden reversal of filing cut-off dates is a great disappointment to employers, their foreign national employees, and immigration professionals alike, all of whom had already begun the process of preparing a number of filings in reliance upon the anticipated October 1 filing date.
Litigation has ensued against the Federal Government – only time will tell if such litigation will yield a positive outcome.
Stay tuned!