Your Guide to the US Visa Priority Date
If you intend to immigrate to the USA, and you have just received your receipt notice or perhaps you are still waiting for your approval notice, these are the things you need to know about your priority date.
The pandemic has affected a great deal of our plans including travel and even the more long-term career-oriented plans like migration to another country for work. If your target destination for work is the USA, then you better read this article. We’ll give you a clear picture about the priority date and how it affects your immigration process.
Although it might seem unfortunate that current events postponed some of our travel plans, do not worry if your plan is to work and live in the USA. As early as now, you can attend a job interview, secure your spot, and start the application process for your green card if you are part of the eligible individuals who could obtain this. Before this though, you’d need to secure one essential process, and that is to obtain a priority date.
What Is A Priority Date?
A priority date is the date an application is initially filed in the green card process. For a person filing under an employment-based green card, this is the date the PERM Labor Certification is filed with the Department of Labor (DOL). For persons filing an employment-based green card under a category exempt from Labor Certification, this date is established when the I-140 petition is filed. For family-based cases, this is the date the I-130 is filed. The US Department of State (DOS) issues a monthly Visa Bulletin which lists the priority dates for each category.
Why Is The Priority Date Important?
If you are eligible for a permanent immigrant visa, it is important to keep track of actual changes and possible future progress in the Visa Bulletin. We suggest you prepare all your documents needed for your green card application ahead of time, so you can be ready to file as quickly as possible once the Visa Bulletin shows that a green card is available to you.
When Do You Receive Your Priority Date?
The people who can be given priority dates include those in the family-based or employment-based preference categories. The initial visa petition is filed by either their family member on Form I-130 (Petition for Alien Relative), or by a US employer on Form I-140 (Immigrant Petition for Alien Workers) usually after a successful interview. This can take 2 weeks to 4 months depending on the petitioner. Your initial visa petition can take around 2-3 more weeks to be approved with certain categories of the green card. By this time you would already have your priority date stated in your receipt notice.
The earlier you secure your priority date, the better. It is like you taking a spot on the long line of people waiting for their turn for an embassy interview. The Visa Bulletin website provides information on how long previous applicants are waiting for their priority dates to come up, when the Final Action Date shows your priority date, that means you have reached the front of the line and your green card application is ready for approval.
Are There Possible Delays To Your Application?
The answer is yes.
Retrogression has happened a good number of times in the past years.
Usually the cut-off dates on the Visa Bulletin move forward in time, but not always. Demand for visa numbers by applicants with a variety of priority dates can fluctuate from one month to another, with an inevitable impact on cut-off dates. Such fluctuations can cause cut-off date movement to slow, stop, or even retrogress. Visa retrogression occurs when more people apply for a visa in a particular category or country than there are visas available for that month. Retrogression typically occurs toward the end of the fiscal year as visa issuance approaches the annual category, or per-country limitations. Sometimes a priority date that meets the cut-off date one month will not meet the cut-off date the next month. When the new fiscal year begins on October 1, a new supply of visas is made available and usually, but not always, returns the dates to where they were before retrogression.
Understanding the Visa Bulletin Chart for Employment-based Categories
U.S. immigration law provides aliens with a variety of ways to become lawful permanent residents (get a Green Card) through employment in the United States. These employment-based (EB) “preference immigrant” categories include:
- First preference (EB-1) – priority workers
- Aliens with extraordinary ability in the sciences, arts, education, business, or athletics;
- Outstanding professors and researchers; or
- Certain multinational managers and executives.
- Second preference (EB-2) – aliens who are members of the professions holding advanced degrees or who have exceptional ability (including requests for national interest waivers).
- Third preference (EB-3) – skilled workers, professionals, or other workers.
Important note:
The “Final Action Dates” chart shows which priority dates have reached the front of the line. These green card applications are ready for approval right now.
The “Dates for Filing” chart shows which green card applicants who are living outside of the United States should go ahead and submit their application with the National Visa Center (NVC) even though a green card is not ready just yet. The cut-off dates are in the “Dates for Filing” chart, which allows green card applicants to file their application that much sooner.
Those who plan to migrate to the USA under the terms of an employment will need to have a US Visa that falls under the employment-based immigrant category or “EB.”
There are 5 sub-categories under EB. But nurses only need to focus on Employment-based Third Preference (EB-3) – this applies to Skilled Workers, Professionals, and Unskilled Workers (Other Workers).
Sample Chart
If you are a Filipino registered nurse aspiring to work in the USA, it’s important to get the latest updates from the monthly US Visa Bulletin.
Stay on your toes for next month’s update! As always, we will highlight all the important changes in US visa bulletin for you.
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Source:
https://www.uscis.gov/green-card/green-card-eligibility/green-card-for-employment-based-immigrants
