January 2012 visa schedule: EB-2 has been advanced for more than 9 months!

January 2012 visa schedule: EB-2 has been advanced for more than 9 months! On December 9, 2011, the U.S. Department of State announced the latest January 2012...

Compared with December 2011, the deadline for EB-2 visas continues to advance significantly. The deadline for applicants born in mainland China has advanced by more than 9 months from 03/15/2008 to 01/01/2009 in December last year! At the same time, except India, there are still quotas for EB-2 in other countries or regions.

EB-1 visa is still available all over the world as always. The EB-3 process has also been relatively accelerated. The deadline for applicants born in mainland China has been advanced by more than a month from last month to 10/15/2004.

The review process based on EB-3 is still slow, and for Chinese-born applicants, the deadline is more than four years later than that of EB-2. Therefore, we recommend that applicants who have submitted an EB-3 application and been approved and are waiting for the EB-2 application can consider applying for EB-2 again if they meet the conditions of EB-2 (possessing a master's degree or above or a bachelor's degree and more than five years of work experience). In this way, the priority date of the previous EB-3 can be used for the EB-2 application, which can greatly shorten the waiting time for the EB-2 application. In the same way, applicants who have been approved for EB-2 and are waiting to be scheduled can also submit an EB-1 application.

EB-5 investment immigration, which is currently more popular in China, although the number of applicants has increased significantly in recent years, there are still places available. It is also a good choice for applicants with financial resources.

From January to November 2011, our firm had 250 NIW cases approved. In addition, during this period, our firm had 174 EB-1 applications successfully approved.

Before you start your application, it is very necessary to consult a trained legal expert, especially since the USCIS issued a memorandum on August 18, 2010 and has begun to review EB-1 applications more strictly. Essentially, the memorandum breaks down the EB-1 evaluation process into two parts: 1) evaluating whether the applicant meets the standard baseline for the immigration category for which the petition was filed, and 2) determining whether the applicant’s evidence demonstrates that the applicant has achieved the high level of professional qualifications required for the immigration category. In Part 2 of the review process, USCIS will evaluate all evidence to see whether, taken as a whole, the applicant is the best in his or her field. Generally speaking, for the first step of review, the immigration officials focus on whether the applicant meets the requirements in terms of pure "quantity". In the second step of review, the immigration officials focus on whether the applicant meets the requirements on the overall "quality". Meeting the requirements in "quantity" does not necessarily mean that the requirements are met in "quality".