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Aug. 21, 2007, 9:00am
USCIS just released its latest updates on the current processing of the overwhelming number of cases it received and its progress in catching up on the issuance of the receipts for those filings. According to the announcement by USCIS dated Aug. 17, 2007, they made some progress and are catching up from the massive filings they received on the very first working day of July: July 2, 2007 when it was also the day USCIS and DOS announced the exhaustion of all visa numbers which was of course later retracted by the DOS.
We reported to you two weeks (on Aug. 7, 2007) the first receipt issuance dates and this is the 2nd update. Among the most anxious waiting list are the employment based I-140 and I-485 receipts issuance because all the applicants are desperate for the official confirmation to make sure that their applications are in fact properly filed before the past expiration date on Aug. 17, 2007. Since most of our clients reside in the Texas Service Center, we are posting the Progress Report for the Texas Service Center herein:
Form I-140 ==>> Receipts are being issued for cases received on or before Aug. 13, 2007
Form I-485 ==>> Receipts are being issued for cases received on or before June 30, 2007
Form I-131 ==>> Receipts are being issued for cases received on or before June 30, 2007
Form N-400 ==>> Receipts are being issued for cases received on or before July 12, 2007
All other cases ==>> Receipts are being issued for cases received on or before July 30, 2007
You can find the original announcement by USCIS that includes ALL other Service Centers progress report here:
If you still have questions and would like to discuss your situation further with us, please send an email to the person working on your case in our office or you can send your questions or concerns to:
Thank you and we appreciate your continued trust and confidence in our legal expertise and professional service.
Yu, South & Associates, We Try Harder to Serve You Better.
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Aug. 15, 2007, 7:00pm
Final Reminder: The final deadline for July Visa Bulletin related employment based filings is Aug. 17, 2007, this Friday! Yu, South & Associates designated special taskforce in the past 3 weeks and has completed as of yesterday afternoon all the filings for every single one of our existing and known clients that we can make contact with. We even brought back a few clients who went back to their home countries on vacation or travelling overseas in time to catch this last opportunity before the window closes tomorrow. If you or you know a friend who might be eligible for this special privilege have not done so yet, please contact us IMMEDIATELY because we MIGHT still have the possibility to complete your application to beat the deadline before tomorrow. It is critical that you get in touch with us right away because there will be no visa available at all for the rest of the fiscal year for the EB-3 preference workers for example according to the latest September 2007 Visa Bulletin just announced earlier today by the US Department of State. Further, any derivative filings based on the pending I-485 pursuant to the July Visa Bulletin, if not filed before this same deadline, will be subject to the new higher filing fee schedule as announced, too.
You can click here to view the actual Visa Bulletin for the September 2007 published by US DOS:
So, make sure you have filed all your affected applications, if eligible, and make sure anyone you know have also done the same. Otherwise, contact us right away!
Yu, South & Associates, We Try Harder to Serve You Better.
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Aug. 15, 2007, 5:00pm
The last Visa Bulletin from the Department of State for the Fiscal Year 2007 just came out and as anticipated and reported in our earlier postings, ALL employment based visa availability is seriously backlogged. Specifically, all EB-3 are simply "Unavailable" for people from China, India and Mexico and for the rest of the world as well as all other categories for all countries are assigend a Jan. 1, 2007 priority date. This situation is only getting worse, because this special and dramatic July Visa Bulletin related filings during the extended time window until Aug. 17, 2007 or this Friday have not been accounted for just yet, and when all those numbers get entered into the system one can only imagine the backlog is definitely not going to improve soon. So, if you have not yet filed your affected employment based cases, if eligible, you need to contact us IMMEDIATELY and for those existing clients whom we already filed the I-485 and other derivative applications, a long wait is anticipated until their I-485 can be actually adjudicated. But, the good thing is once your I-485 is filed, you don't have to worry about your H-1B renewal any more and you are eligible to apply for advanced parole for travel purpose and your spouse can even get an EAD to start working as well.
If you still have any further questions, please do not hesitate to contact us and the person who works on your case should be your first line of communication at Yu, South & Associates. You can, of course, send your inquiry or questions to:
Yu, South & Associates, We Try Harder to Serve You Better.
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Aug. 7, 2007, 7:00pm
USCIS yesterday announced its recent efforts in processing the overwhelming number of cases it received and its progress in catching up on the issuance of the receipts for those filings. Among the most anxious waiting list is the employment based I-140 and I-485 receipts issuance because all the applicants are desperate for the official confirmation to make sure that their applications are in fact properly filed before the upcoming expiration date of Aug. 17, 2007. Since most of our clients reside in the Texas Service Center, we are posting the Progress Report for the Texas Service Center herein:
Form I-140 ==>> Receipts are being issued for cases received on or before July 30, 2007
Form I-485 ==>> Receipts are being issued for cases receivedon or before June 26, 2007
Form I-131 ==>> Receipts are being issued for cases received on or before June 26, 2007
Form N-400 ==>> Receipts are being issued for cases received on or before July 9, 2007
All other cases ==>> Receipts are being issued for cases received on or before July 30, 2007
You can find the original announcement by USCIS that includes ALL other Service Centers progress report here:
If you still have questions and would like to discuss your situation further with us, please send an email to the person working on your case in our office or you can send your questions or concerns to:
Thank you and we appreciate your continued trust and confidence in our legal expertise and professional service.
Yu, South & Associates, We Try Harder to Serve You Better.
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July 23, 2007, 5:00pm:
USCIS just released today its latest implementation details on the employment based filings that are pertinent to the July Visa Bulletin eligibility as recently rectified by DOS. In this 3 paged 19 answers to the most frequently asked questions, USCIS specified many important details regarding this very narrow window of opportunity for all the employment based filings under the July Visa Bulletin eligibility. Because the published August Visa Bulletin already made every single employment based visa category "Unavaible" it is critical that you file your cases accurately and precisely according to this latest guideline by the USCIS which is very technical and sepcific, so that your cases are not to be rejected due to improper filing procedures or technicalities.
For the convenience of our exsiting clients, we provide this link here for you to read in its original entirety the actual Questions and Answers from USCIS that was released a short while ago today:
If you still have questions and would like to discuss your situation further with us, please send an email to the person working on your case in our office or you can send your questions or concerns to:
Thank you and we appreciate your continued trust and confidence in our legal expertise and professional service.
Yu, South & Associates, We Try Harder to Serve You Better.
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July 17, 2007, 5:00pm
What a pleasant surprise in this dramatic summer of 2007 for the immigration world: DOS today just announced only moment ago its scheduled Visa Bulletin for August and in its added notes it officially WITHDREW the previous revision made on July 2, 2007 that evaporated the entire annual visa availability for all employment based visa numbers creating a world of unresting grievance. Now, with the involvement of politicians and immigration organizations and activists, USDOS finally gave in and reversed its own revision making July Employment Visa Numbers AVAILABLE as announced on June 12, 2007 before the revision!
What this means to you is, if you have an approved PERM or Alien Labor Certification or an approved I-140, or you are eligible to file an immigrant petition directly without an alien labor certification, you can now contact your attorney or contact person at Yu, South & Associates via email to have your I-485 filed right away without any further undue delays and this time for real, too!!! AND, for those who missed out last time due to various reasons when we opened our office on the last Saturday in June trying to assist our existing clients to beat the July 2 announcement can now have their own renewed second chance to file their I-485 again!
According to the USCIS which made a follow-up announcement immediately after the DOS officially withdrew its July Visa Bulletin revision today, all applicants eligible under the final official announcement of the July Visa Bulletin are given a special treatment by allowing them to file the applications BEYOND July 30, 2007 at the current old filing fee rates UNTIL August 17, 2007. Basically, all July Employment Based visa eligible applicants are given an 18 days time window to file their applications under the cheaper old filing fee schedule, even though the new and expensive filing fee rates are scheduled to become effective on July 30, 2007.
So, in other word, we will have a solid month from today on as a time window to file the applications under the old fee schedule before August 17, 2007. We have adequate staff and all the support team to ensure that each and everyone of our clients' I-485 will be timely and properly filed. Please contact us via email to schedule an appointment and to start preparing for the documentation needed. At this time, we would strongly recommend all eligible existing clients contact us to have their medicals done while we work on their packages.
Once we receive your request to process your I-485 package, we will send out to you via email a complete questionaire and PLEASE make sure you follow the instructions in the email and provide ALL the information as requested VIA EMAIL. That way you are doing your best to speed up the processing of your case handling. Please make sure you click "Submit" at the end of your filling out those forms from our email questionaire because that action of "click to submit" actually will upload your information and answers back to us to update our system database automatically to reduce the chances of human errors if we have to re-key those items into the computer again. So, please don't print them out and bring to us. Instead, fill out the forms online and click "Submit" from the menu provided in the email to complete the process.
Finally, as our existing client, you can anticipate the overwhelming telephone inquiries that our office is going through in the next few weeks, we request all our existing clients to please use email channels to communicate with us to avoid the delay and to ensure prompt and detailed response in writing.
Thank you!
Yu, South & Associates, We Try Harder to Serve You Better!
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July 12, 2007, 1:30pm
We just learned that the Chairwoman of the US House Subcommittee on Immigration, Citizenship, Refugees, Border Security & International Law, Congresswoman Zoe Lofgren, has sent an inquiring letter to the USCIS on July 11, 2007, demanding the USCIS to provide of all the documentation and internal communications it had regarding the revision of all the employment based visa bulletin for July 2007 and the consequential rejection of the I-485 filed for the month of July 2007.
In her official letter sent to the Honorable Michael Chertoff, Secretary of U.S. Department of Homeland Security in Washington, DC, the Chairwoman asked the USCIS to provide her WITHIN 3 days all the information relating to this unprecedented change of course regarding the July visa availability and the rejection of employment based I-485 filings. The information requested is very specific, detailed, complete and broad and it covers 13 different classifications of documentation, involving all related government agencies including the US Department of Homeland Security (DHS), Department of State (DOS), Department of Justice (DOJ) and Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and the components of those government agencies.
We have been monitoring the whole event closely for our clients since the beginning of the problems in late June and will bring to you the latest development as the story unfolds. Please bookmark this page and visit us from time to time for new updates as they become available. Please feel free to share the info published here with your friends and colleagues whether they are a client of ours or not, because we want everybody to be informed so that everybody can make their own educated decisions in their best interest.
Yu, South & Associates, We Try Harder to Serve You Better!
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July 9, 2007, 6:00pm
Yu, South & Associates just learned that in its endeavor to file a class action lawsuit against the USCIS and US DOS, AILF's Legal Action Center is now seeking plaintiffs and individual parties to join their membership drive to seek certification for a class action against the USCIS and US DOS on the recent employment based visa number availability changes and the adjustment of status filing rejection announcement. The following are three original forms distributed by AILF to seek plaintiffs and we post them here to facilitate AILF's efforts for your reference:
You can click on the above forms to open the documents to review or fill out at your own discretion. If you are interested in participating, you may follow the instructions and submit them to AILF directly or email your answers with specific instructions so that we as your attorney of recrod can forward them to AILF for you.
Yu, South & Associates, Together We Serve You Better!
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July 07, 2007, 1:40PM
Yu, South & Associates has been informed a short while ago that as we have previously reported to our existing clients on our website the Legal Action Center of the American Immigration Law Center (AILF) is now finalizing its lawsuit against both the USCIS and the USDOS on the latest drama on the modified July Visa Availability Confusion. The law suit will be attempted as a class action and the following is a news flash from the AILF:
Update on AILF's Legal Action Center and the Visa Bulletin Issue
The lawsuit will be filed soon. It will be filed as a class action. We expect that one or more of the proposed classes of plaintiffs will include individuals who do not apply for adjustment of status in July 2007, but who were statutorily eligible to apply and would have applied in July 2007 but for the DOS and USCIS actions.
A new prospective plaintiff questionnaire, to help AILF identify plaintiffs in this new category, and updated FAQ will be posted soon.
We will keep you informed on this and many other important legal matters in the first and real time as they unfold and we will make those new and updated prospective plaintiff questionnaires immediately available to our existing clients through our website and at our Richardson, TX office location. If you are interested in the participation of the attempted "class action" you may bookmark this page to visit us at this site regularly because we will post further instructions right here for you as they become available or you can contact our office directly. For our updated contact info or driving directions, please go to “Contact Us” from the top menu of this page.
Yu, South & Associates, together we serve you better!
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July 6, 2007 10:00PM
Ever since the last DOS revision of July Visa Bulletin and the subsequent announcement by USCIS to reject all July Employment Based Adjustment of Status filings, we received so many inquiries from our existing clients that it would be beneficial to post the most frequently asked two questions here: what is now the priority date for July after the revision by DOS and what would be the October priority date dates. To address those two common questions, we are now posting this general response herein to share with our existing clients:
1. When the DOS announced that there would be NO visa available for July 2007, it means there will be not a SINGLE visa number available for ANYONE, regardless how old your priority date might have been. The only reason there is an actual date listed in the "Visa Bulletin" is when there are only limited visa numbers available but an overwhelmingly out-numbered pool of eligible applicants with either an approved I-140 or certified alien labor certification (qualifying them under "concurrent filing" approach). In such a situation and to regulate such a frequent problem with limited resources (more people but less available visa numbers), DOS sets a time table which prescribes arbitrarily a specific date so that people with an earlier priority date than the date announced can get those numbers first and people with a later priority date than that announced should wait for their turn next time, for fairness and sequential order in theory, for each different preference category. Hence, the "cut-off" date. If your priority date is earlier or no later than that "cut-off" date, your priority date is now defined as "current" and your application will then be accepted and processed. If your priority date is later than the "cut-off" date, your visa number in the preference category is now considered "unavailable" and you will have to follow the progressive report in the "Visa Bulletin" by DOS monthly to wait for your turn. DOS is the only government agency designated and authorized to make the assessment and announcement as well as the adjustment for such a determination through a monthly publication known as "Visa Bulletin." You can find the latest "visa bulletin" on the DOS's website or simply click here to view: http://travel.state.gov/visa/frvi/bulletin/bulletin_1770.html
2. Once a "cut off" date is determined by the DOS, USCIS and DOS's overseas posts will then be able to easily decide whose applications they can accept and process by simply applying that "cut off" date to the "priority date" of the applicant's underlining "alien labor certification" or the approved "immigrant petition" (I-140). When the USCIS on July 2, 2007 followed DOS and announced that it would reject ALL employment based AOS filings for the month of July because there would be no visa available, it means that no one, not a single one, will be able to file their employment based AOS applications, and it does NOT matter if your priority date is from 10 years ago or from 100 years ago, because DOS did not give USCIS or the rest of the world any specific "cut off" date but and instead a simple statement saying: "No Visa Is Available For July 2007," PERIOD!
3. So, when would the visas be available again? Again, according to DOS in its revision announcement on July 2, 2007, the earliest time the new visa numbers will be available would be for the next fiscal year which starts on October 1, 2007. Since it has been DOS's practice to make such a routine visa bulletin announcement between 10th to 15th of each month for the next month's visa availability prediction, we should know how bad the situations will look like in the first half of September when DOS is due to make its October 2007 visa bulletin announcement that starts the new visa numbers for the fiscal year of 2008.
Yu, South & Associates will keep you updated on this and many other topics in law that might affect your case status and please visit us here often to check on the latest development. If you have specific questions, please go to "Ask a Lawyer" section or simply click here to email to:
Yu, South & Associates, together we serve you better!
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July 2, 2007, 1:30pm
Dear Clients,
Now that everything is public and official that there is no more visa available for all employment based categories, resulting the instant and immediate rejection of any and all AOS filings effective on the early morning of the first possible moment of filing, it is certain now that no one was successful in any kind of an attempt to beat the announcement in the filing of their I-485 applications, whether it was filed on Saturday or Sunday or today.
Now, what can you do at this time? Yu, South & Associates have put together some ideas and suggestions to help you sort through this surprising development as follows:
- If your case is already filed on Saturday, June 30, 2007, your case unfortunately is being rejected and on the way to be returned to our office. But, that's not the end of the efforts. In fact, we are still finalizing a few cases that we were waiting on either the medical records or birth certificates to arrive today and we are planning to rush them to the USCIS via messenger hand delivery now! Those hand delivered today will inevitably be rejected, of course, too, just like those attempted on Saturday, June 30. The point of still doing it is to create a delivery attempt on July 2, 2007 when the questionable changes by DOS and USCIS were first announced so that some day if it ever comes at all when we need to show the efforts, we would have something to present, in addition to our promise to our clients to file them on or before July 2, 2007.
- If your case is not ready yet to file, we would strongly encourage you to still continue your efforts to prepare, put together and work with your attorneys to finalize your I-485 package so that they would be ready to go at the next first availability to file, October 1, 2007, for example, if not sooner.
- No need to panic! Definitely no reason to be frustrated because the current visa availability came in as one of the most pleasant biggest surprises to the immigrant world about two weeks ago, so just take it easy as if the visa "backlog" is now actually and "fortunately" advanced instead of previously and "mistakenly" thought to be totally eliminated. Further, all the excitement for nothing and all the issues or problems as a result are universal and equal among everyone, so don't let this dramatic incident affect your life and especially don't blame yourself or anyone else for that matter on the missing out of the chance, because there had been NEVER a true or real chance for ANYONE! In fact, NO one could have filed it successfully in any possible way, and actually no one else did.
- In the worst situation, we still have October 1, 2007 to look forward to, according to the latest revision by the DOS announcement this morning, and that is only less than 3 months away, although it is anticipated that a new cut-off date might be provided by then, if not all "current". Considering the fact that DOS makes its routine visa bulletin announcement on or before the 15th of each month, it is only less than 2 and a half months away. So, take it easy and take it well because October is right around the corner in less than 73 days (before Sept. 14, 2007 when October Visa Bulletin will be announced).
- This dramatic and surprising change of policy on the USCIS part and the reverse of course on the DOS part are certainly against their own practice and policy, if not illegal. In fact, the American Immigration Law Foundation (AILF), an affiliate with the American Immigration Lawyers Association (AILA), has already been authorized to initiate the efforts to file a lawsuit against the USCIS on the rejection of the I-485 filings based on an announced visa bulletin indicating immediate visa availability. The past practice and record of USCIS has always been that the USCIS would continue to accept the filings for the month even it had been obvious that the numbers had already been exhausted, as long as the filings were made within the month that the visa had been announced as "current." We will update you on the endeavor of this lawsuit by AILF.
- During the meantime, we would also like to introduce to you the following two forms and you may submit them back to our office (you can also option to send directly to the AILF as indicated on the Forms) or to your own attorney for their legal advise if your case is not with Yu, South & Associates, so that you and your family's cases might be included in the anticipated and forthcoming efforts for class action attempts, if it is so certified successfully, to protect your rights and benefits.
- Although AILF and many other organizations or groups of individuals will for sure try every way possible in bringing forth the lawsuit against USCIS, the path toward being actually certified as a class action by any federal court is definitely full of challenges to say the least, from either the reality or the law as federal regulation does prohibit filing application for adjustment of status (Form I-485) without an immediately available visa number for the classification and preference underlining the original immigrant petition (Form I-140) and the DOS is in fact the designated agency authorized to make such a determination and announcement regarding the visa availability based on its assessment and prediction of the actual visa usage on a monthly basis. Therefore, even though it might have almost seemed to be a joke for the announcement of the employment based visa availability in the original July Visa Bulletin only to be revised on the early morning of the very first day the visa numbers were supposed to be available for use, all challenges and attempts to change the reality are unfortunately not that much encouraging or promising in the opinion of and the assessment by Yu, South & Associates, based on the known facts and at this time.
- However, if you want to voice your resentment or disappointment hoping to make a difference, here're these two forms designed and distributed by the AILF and we will keep you updated on the development:
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July 2, 2007 12:40pm
Dear Clients,
The very first and official response from the USCIS is now made public and in this initial public announcement USCIS confirmed that it will reject any and all Employment Based Visa Category Adjustment of Status applications on the ground that "No Visa Number Is Available" for the classification sort. This means and actually now certifies what Yu, South & Associates initially predicted that "... nobody was able to beat it ..." was in fact the case. That announcement is now on the first page of USCIS homepage at this link:
http://www.uscis.gov/portal/site/uscis
The actual announcement by USCIS if you cannot find the content at that link can be found here:
http://www.uscis.gov/files/pressrelease/VisaBulletin2Jul07.pdf
Please bookmark this page and return for more updated information regarding this and many other important and update the minute information on US immigration related matters at www.yuimmigration.com forthcoming shortly.
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July 2, 2007, 12:11pm
Dear Clients,
In our earlier posting, we explained about the latest changes in July Visa Availability, here are some related additional notes:
Some of you might have gone to the US DOS website and tried to see what is posted there for July 2007 only to find out the visa bulletin still indicates all employment based categories are STILL "current" and available. Please be advised that DOS has not updated its web contents yet but a new and current link to the revised and announced visa bulletin is here:
The Department of State announced today, July 2, 2007, that it has made "immediate adjustments" to "several previously announced cut-off dates," and that it has notified USCIS that, as of today there will be no further authorizations for use of employment-based numbers. The DOS notice, at http://travel.state.gove/visa/frvi/bulletin/bulletin_3263.html , indicates that no further numbers will be available until until October 1.
In case the above link is not readily functional for non-AILA members or attorneys, here's what the was said by DOS:
The sudden backlog reduction efforts by Citizenship and Immigration Services Offices during the past month have resulted in the use of almost 60,000 employment numbers. As a result of this unexpected action it has been necessary to make immediate adjustments to several previously announced cut-off dates. All Citizenship and Immigration Services Offices have been notified of the following:
Effective Monday July 2, 2007 there will be no further authorizations in response to requests for Employment-based preference cases. All numbers available to these categories under the FY-2007 annual numerical limitation have been made available.
Employment preference numbers will once again be available to these chargeability areas beginning October 1, 2007, under the FY-2008 annual numerical limitation.
Department of State Publication 9514
CA/VO: July 2, 2007
We are still in process compiling a list of things regarding "WHAT" you can do at this time and please visit us at Yu, South & Associates at: www.yuimmigration.com later for more updates and details on this important changes that affect many employment based immigrant's life and filing status.
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July 2, 2007, 10:00am
Dear Clients,
As suspected, the US Department of State (DOS) just made the announcement early this morning that no visa is now available for all employment based visa categories!!!
Although it has been speculating if and when the DOS was to make the adjustment in their last surprise announcement only two weeks ago (and Yu, South & Associates was among the first to bring to our clients on the early evening of June 29, 2007, Friday, after hours when the news first leaked out), it still came in as a surprise early this morning, because DOS gave the American Immigration Attorneys Association (AILA) the impression that the announcement or adjustment MIGHT be forthcoming early next week or sometime in the early part of July, if it would come at all.
What does this mean to you and the rest of the world?
Because the news was first leaked out after hours on the evening after hours on a Friday afternoon at around 6:30pm, nobody was aware of it until later in the night. Although Yu, South & Associates immediately posted the news alert on our website at: www.yuimmigration.com, there's very little anyone can do at that late hour or moment. We opened our office on Saturday as a courtesy and service to some of our clients who saw our web posting or through other channels but we could NOT send them out in time to reach the USCIS on July 1, 2007 as it was a Sunday. Therefore, the earliest time and the safest way would be use the messenger service to locally hand deliver the package to the USCIS on Monday morning because "Overnight Delivery" through US Postal Service only guarantees delivery before 3:00pm. That's what we tried and did, for some of the people whose documents were complete and we were able to finish on Saturday.
While we are now waiting for the result of those personal delivery of those few packages and wish they somehow miraculously were accepted or got in to the system, it is not surprising to us that there is NOT a single case made their way into the USCIS system, because of the following two reasons:
- No matter how ready you and your case might be, no one could send the package out until after July 1, 2007, as the visa number would NOT be available until AFTER July 1, 2007, even they might be mistakenly announced by the DOS. So, no one could send in their applications before Friday, June 29, 2007.
- Even the package was sent out through US Postal Service Overnight on the early morning of Saturday, June 30, 2007, the earliest delivery time would be some time between 10:00am to 3:00pm on July 2, 2007, as July 1 was a Sunday. Now that DOS made the announcement early in the morning on July 2, 2007, way before 10:00am when the Overnight Express-mail were sorted for delivery, USCIS is for sure advised of such a change in the visa number availability prior to that public announcement and therefore eliminated the remote possibility of the mail-room accepting the packages and issuing the receipt by mistake without knowing the changes in the visa bulletin. Therefore, it is very discouraging that after all the hype and rushes, it looks like nobody was able to beat it after all but there's very little you or we could do at this time regarding the visa availabilities as announced by the DOS.
What CAN you do at this time?
We are now overwhelmed with all the inquiries regarding this matter and all related issues. Please come back in a short while to see the update from Yu, South & Associates at: www.yuimmigration.com for "what" you CAN do at this time.
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June 29, 2007, 6:30pm
Dear Client,
Please read this carefully as it is very important and may affect how your case is processed. We have just posted a warning message on our website under "Articles & Updates" with the following message:
"Everybody is excited about the recent dramatic changes when the State Department announced on or about June 14, 2007 that all employment based visa quota were suddenly “Current” for the coming July 2007, making it possible for all the anxious and waiting beneficiaries to immediately file their “Adjustment of Status” applications as soon as July comes. Because July 1st falls on a Sunday, so everybody is looking forward to July 2 and beyond to file their applications. While we are, too, very busy assisting our clients in preparing those filings starting from July 2, Yu, South & Associates learned from reliable sources that there could be issues or even anticipated changes to reverse the course by possible announcement to reinstate the ”backlog” situation for many if not all employment based preferences soon. When that happens, it would create a lot of problems, for both those who filed and those who are in the process of filing the applications. We will keep you updated and you can also contact our office for any further information at:
This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. . Thank you."
The above was intended for general audience only and for you, as our client, please be advised of the following:
- Given the rumor about the possible backlog announcement to reverse the course, it would be imperative that we file your applications IMMEDIATELY to reduce the risk of being rejected and the earliest time we can do that would be overnight them on Saturday, June 30, 2007 to arrive at the USCIS on Monday July 2, 2007.
- This way, even the government makes an announcement on July 2 or 3, 2007, you would still have a reasonable chance of being accepted already before the announcement.
- Of course, if the announcement is to be delayed or never makes its way to the public, so much the better but you would still have your applications filed at the earliest possible dates to your advantage.
Therefore, as a special service to our clients, we are informing you that we are going to open our office tomorrow, Saturday, June 30, 2007 to process those who can make in to rush out their packages to be mailed out. We will open from 10:00AM till 3:00PM and will help those who can come on a first come first served basis, with no additional charge.
What can you do, if you cannot make it in tomorrow on Saturday, June 30, 2007?
Not much you can do because nobody was anticipating this! Don't panic as it will not help and, if for some reason you will not be able to rush your application in tomorrow, you are certainly not alone. Everyone was caught by surprise when Department of State (DOS) suddenly announced two weeks ago that all employment categories are now "current" when only days before some of them had been backlogged for over 5 years! It was certainly a pleasant surprise to the immigrant world for sure. It could be now exactly two weeks later once again striking us by another surprise if the DOS is to really make a new announcement to reverse the course to set back the backlog in the next few days or weeks.
Our suggestions to you in such a situation when you know there's no way you can get everything together by tomorrow then would be: ignore all the rumors and continue to collect, prepare and put together all the documentation needed for your own applications as if none of this is happening. In fact, nothing is official at this time and the only official word is the visa numbers are "current" based on the "visa bulletin". However, you should speed up your preparation process a little and file them as soon as possible. If the whole thing turns out to be a pure rumor, you are not affected, but if you somehow miss it for real, you have tried and it was simply not your timing. We will wait for the next opportunity.
Thank you, and please come back to visit our site and check on our frequent update on this and many other latest development in the US immigration laws and related topics.
Becky Yu
Managing Partner, June 29, 2007