There are five categories of employment based immigration. The first preference category (EB-1) is for priority workers including persons of extraordinary ability, outstanding professors and researchers, and multinational organization executives and managers. The second category (EB-2), is for members of the professions holding advanced degrees or persons of exceptional ability. The third category (EB-3) is for professionals, skilled and other workers.
Effective immediately beginning November 20, 2013 EB-2 Visa availability retrogressed nearly four years (from Petitions with priority dates of June 15, 2008 to November 15, 2004). This means that U.S. Lawful Permanent Residence (i.e., green cards) cannot be obtained for those EB-2 Indian Nationals with a priority date after November 2004 (even though the November Visa Bulletin has not technically regressed). The U.S. Department of State has advised that as soon as retrogression was announced for December 2013, it took effect immediately.
The reason for the retrogression is an unprecedented demand for India EB-2 Visa Numbers. It has been reported that from November 10, 2013 until November 20, 2013 the Department of State received from USCIS approximately 150 EB-2 India Visa Petitions per day. Many of those Petitions were upgrades from the EB-3 category. Though highly unusual, the EB-2 category for Indian Nationals had to close in the middle of the month. It is possible that the EB-2 category could soon advance back to 2008. Continue to check back with www.slepianlaw.com for further developments.
