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The suspense is over of what will be the cut off dates for EB2 and EB3 category in October'2008 Visa Bulletin. The October month is when the new fiscal year begins for visa number allotments. The allotments at start of year is always cheering to the numerous immigrants waiting for Greencard approvals.

The Mumbai consulate released the cut-off dates today --



Many predictions were that EB2 will slow down and EB3 changes significantly from unavailable to a much advanced date. Mumbai cut-off dates are available now and its back to square one. For EB2 dates are retrogressed to 1 April 2003 where as for EB3 it is 1 July 2001. Some pleasing news for EB3 as it changed from "Unavailable".

Unless the legislation to acquire all unused past Green card numbers is passed, the wait to become numbers current is a day dream.

Here is the link you can find October's 2008 visa bulletin from USCIS

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Labels: eb-2, eb-3, Fiscal year, H-1B visa, Immigration, Mumbai, United States, United States Citizenship and Immigration Services, USCIS, Visa

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From 1997, Chowdhury was met with numerous delays in processing interim EAD (Employment Authorization Documents). USCIS explained the delays in EAD to negative information obtained during the background check that delayed the EAD approvals.

Murthy.com reports :

Since the government could not properly account of the delays, the court found no substantially justified reason for its delay in processing the EAD application and awarded $30,025.80 in attorney's fees to the plaintiff.

The main problem with delayed EAD is for employee not able to work as employers follow strict visa rules in employing a person on payroll.

This year we applied for two year EAD renewal and my spouse's EAD is renewed for 2 years and my EAD is not yet received. And recently the system got improved very well that EADs are receive in a month's time.

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Labels: Employment, Immigration, United States, United States Citizenship and Immigration Services, United States Secretary of Homeland Security, USCIS

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Image via WikipediaWorcester's Snowhill resident Mohammad Ijaz bribed USCIS (U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Service officials) for six green cards besides participating in a sate tax evasion scam. The result he landed in prison with four year term and three years of probation.

He gave bribes in amounts $900,000 to get U.S. Green Cards for six people and for taxes to Comptroller to assess the sales in the stores to $18 million.

Ijaz is one of 11 men arrested as part of a September nationwide sweep in Somerset, Wicomico and Worcester counties.

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Initially the rumors were of three years but Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff in the press release gave sweet EAD news that validity period is now two years :

I'm also pleased to announce that we will be extending the validity period of the employment authorization documents that we issue to individuals who are waiting adjustment of status to lawful permit residenture or in colloquial phrase, the green card.

Currently, adjustment applications are granted employment authorization documents with only a one year maximum validity. Beginning later this month, we'll start issuing these documents with a two-year validity period for aliens who are waiting adjustment of status if their application is expected to be pending for more than a year.

This, again, is eliminating a persistent source of frustration for workers who are here, who have a pending adjustment application but have to go and renew their employment documents every single year. It's going to cut the paperwork there.

USCIS will keep continuing 1-year as retrogression date in visa bulletin is close then it makes no sense for two year validities for the applicant as well as to USCIS. As recent July 2008 visa bulletin indicates "Unavailable" for EB3 employment based category. This leaves no chance until October'2008 for USCIS but renew 2-years for all those applicants.

This is good news for applicants who can save some $$ on filings in attorney fees and also the hassle of getting out of status if card is NOT issued on time. Anyway these are all temporary patches and the large issue of unknown Greencard processing times still prevails.

Labels: Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff, Immigration, Michael Chertoff, United States Citizenship and Immigration Services, United States Secretary of Homeland Security, USCIS

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