Visa Bulletin: Effective Immediately, Many EB-1 Priority Dates Are No Longer Current
July 20th, 2018 by SRW Lawyers
The Department of State announced in the August 2018 Visa Bulletin that a final action date of May 1, 2016 will go into effect immediately for EB-1 Worldwide, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Mexico and the Philippines. All six categories had current priority dates when the July 2018 Visa Bulletin was released.
USCIS will continue to accept I-485 applications for those EB-1 categories regardless of priority date from now through the end of July 2018. However, although USCIS may interview and adjudicate petitions with priority dates after May 1, 2016, they will be unable to approve these cases until they become current. Any USCIS requests for immigrant visas to be issued in these cases will remain pending with the Department of State until the cases have a current priority date.
Beginning on August 1, 2018, USCIS will no longer be able to accept adjustment applications for EB-1 Worldwide, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Mexico and the Philippines. Only applications with a priority date before May 1, 2016 will be accepted for those categories.
The August 2018 Visa Bulletin does indicate that the change is expected to be short-lived and “the implementation of the above mentioned dates will only be temporary, with the dates returning to Current status for October, the first month of fiscal year 2019.”
If you have questions or concerns about how this announcement may affect you, our experienced immigration attorneys can help. Please reach out to us by phone at (716) 854-7525 or by email at https://srwlawyers.com/contact/ to schedule a consultation.
