The offices of IKS ESQ LCC and our partners at ALIA have begun receiving reports from members that some of their pending EB-1 and EB-2 adjustment of status applications have been electronically updated to show that they have “retrogressed.”
In a statment form AILA "It appears that USCIS has used nearly all available employment-based immigrant visas for this fiscal year and will have exhausted the supply of visas by the end of the month. This is a significant accomplishment for the agency in that it approved approximately twice the annual allocation of employment-based immigrant visas in FY2022. In addition, USCIS confirmed in a court declaration filed on September 6, 2022, that “as of September 6, 2022, there are no visas remaining for applicants from any country of chargeability in EB1 or EB2”. It also notes that they expect retrogression in EB-2 India due to high demand. AILA expects that more information regarding visa availability will be published in the October Visa Bulletin which typically publishes around the 9th of the preceding month."
"Despite FY2022 EB-1 and EB-2, and likely EB-3, visa numbers being used before the end of the month, and any announcement from DOS that visas are unavailable, USCIS should continue accepting adjustment of status applications in accordance with the current September 2022 Visa Bulletin. However, USCIS will not be able to approve any cases once visa numbers are no longer available and those cases will remain pending and be retrogressed until visas become available for the applicable priority date. USCIS needed to overestimate the number of applications required to meet the cap in order to ensure they used all available visas. While this will be very disappointing for many clients, the silver lining is that these individuals will still be eligible for AC21 portability, work authorization, and other benefits that come with filing of adjustment of status applications."
We at IKS ESQ LLC will be watching this event closely and are working on strategies to address this change with out clients.