Daijiworld Media Network - Washington
Washington, Oct 5: Indian professionals seeking employment-based US Green Cards continue to face waits of more than a decade in key categories, even as the start of the new fiscal year has restored visa numbers and brought some movement, according to the US State Department's October Visa Bulletin.
The sharpest disparity remains in the employment-based second preference, or EB-2, category, which is widely used by professionals with advanced degrees or exceptional ability.
For applicants chargeable to India, the EB-2 final-action date is November 1, 2013, while for most countries it is January 1, 2025. This means the cutoff for Indian applicants remains more than 11 years behind the date applicable to most of the world.
A similar gap exists in the EB-3 category for skilled workers and professionals. India's final-action date is January 1, 2014, compared with May 15, 2024, for most countries.
The dates do not mean that every applicant will have to wait exactly that long. They indicate the priority dates currently eligible for final action on permanent-residence applications, subject to visa availability and other requirements.
There was some positive movement for Indian applicants at the beginning of fiscal 2027.
India's EB-1 final-action date, covering priority workers such as people with extraordinary ability, outstanding professors and researchers, and certain multinational executives, moved to February 1, 2023.
The October bulletin also restored availability in EB-2 India after the category became unavailable towards the end of the previous fiscal year because its annual visa allocation had been exhausted.
The State Department said the availability of fiscal 2027 immigrant visa numbers allowed filing and final-action dates to advance across several categories.
However, the October figures also highlight the persistence of India's employment-based backlog despite the availability of a new annual allocation.
The separate "Dates for Filing" chart provides somewhat later dates for Indian applicants. Under this chart, EB-1 India stands at July 1, 2024, while both EB-2 and EB-3 India are at January 15, 2015.
Each month, US Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) determines whether applicants seeking adjustment of status from within the United States can use the State Department's Dates for Filing chart instead of the more restrictive Final Action Dates chart.
The distinction is important. A filing date may allow an eligible applicant to submit an adjustment-of-status application, while the final-action date determines when an immigrant visa number is available for the case to be approved.
India is one of four countries currently treated as oversubscribed under the US preference-immigration system, along with mainland China, Mexico and the Philippines.
The State Department said allocations are made, to the extent possible, according to priority dates. When demand exceeds the numerical allocation available for a particular country or category, a cutoff date is imposed.
Federal immigration law sets numerical limits on employment-based immigrant visas and also restricts the proportion available to nationals of any single country. The October bulletin said the worldwide employment-based preference level is at least 140,000 visas annually.
These country limits have had a significant impact on India because of the large number of Indian professionals in the US employment-based immigration pipeline.
As a result, Indian applicants can remain in temporary immigration status for years while waiting for their priority dates to become current.
The Visa Bulletin is issued monthly by the State Department and dates can move forward, remain unchanged or retrogress depending on demand and the number of immigrant visas available.