EB1A Priority Date November 2018 – What to Do?

In the last post, we discussed in details with immigration attorney what is priority date and why the situation became “critical”. EB1A priority dates are not current for all the countries which means nobody can file Adjustment of Status (I-485). We hoped that this will change after new visa bulletin is out (November 2018), but it didn’t happen. So what to do next?

Video

If you prefer to watch rather than read, here is a video:

I suggest following ideas which you might consider when filing EB1A green card.

Check USCIS Visa Bulletin

Check new visa bulletin every month and be prepared to file your EB1A green card petition immediately when priority date becomes current for your country.

Usually, new visa bulletin for an upcoming month appears in the middle of the current month so you will know a few weeks ahead.

Simply go to the USCIS website:

and click on the upcoming month.

Find the chart Employment-Based Adjustment of Status Applications and the first row shows if the priority date is current for the certain country (letter “C“). Any date means that the country is backlogged and USCIS is currently solving the applications with that priority date or older.

Non-concurrent Filing

Let’s go back to the fundamental question – what is the priority date?

Typically, people from India and China are backlogged in other green card categories and they often do non-concurrent filing. They submit only their I-140 (and wait with I-485 Adjustment of Status).

This means they are already standing in the line in front of the closed store, saving their priority date as earliest as possible. They are waiting for the moment when the store opens the doors (their priority date becomes current) and they can come in (file their I-485).

This way, their cases are adjudicated sooner than those filed concurrently.

EB2 National Interest Waiver (EB2 NIW)

If you are a good candidate for EB1A there is a chance you would fit EB2 National Interest Waiver as well.

EB2 NIW is another self-petition green card category where you don’t need a sponsorship from an employer.

NIW requirements are different from EB1A but there are similar things which might be used in EB2 NIW petition. It doesn’t have to be a lot of work to adjust the petition from EB1A to EB2 NIW.

The advantage is that right now (October and November 2018), only China and India are backlogged in EB2 category. All other countries priority dates are current in November 2018.

I know that you would rather hear better news. I hope that the upcoming visa bulletin will change the current situation and EB1A will become current for all the countries again.

Please let me know in comments if you have any questions or wishes what you want to see on this blog.

Thanks for reading!