October 2007 Visa Bulletin – EB3 Priority Date August 2002

The Visa Bulletin for October 2007 is now out and it doesn’t look good for nurses expecting new available visas in October.  Far from it, the priority date has substantially retrogressed to August 1, 2002.

The following is the table from the October 2007 Visa Bulletin:

 

	All Charge-ability Areas Except Those Listed	CHINA- mainland born	INDIA	MEXICO	PHILIP-PINES
Employ-ment -Based
1st	C	C	C	C	C
2nd	C	01JAN06	01APR04	C	C
3rd	01AUG02	01SEP01	22APR01	22APR01	01AUG02
Other Workers	01OCT01	01OCT01	01OCT01	01OCT01	01OCT01
4th	C	C	C	C	C
Certain Religious Workers	C	C	C	C	C
5th	C	C	C	C	C
Targeted Employ-ment Areas/ Regional Centers	C	C	C	C	C

The Visa Bulletin also has a brief note on the EB3 visas as follows:

Employment Third Preference Other Workers Category:  Section 203(e) of the NACARA, as amended by Section 1(e) of Pub. L. 105-139, provides that once the Employment Third Preference Other Worker (EW) cut-off date has reached the priority date of the latest EW petition approved prior to November 19, 1997, the 10,000 EW numbers available for a fiscal year are to be reduced by up to 5,000 annually beginning in the following fiscal year.  This reduction is to be made for as long as necessary to offset adjustments under the NACARA program.  Since the EW cut-off date reached November 19, 1997 during Fiscal Year 2001, the reduction in the EW annual limit to 5,000 began in Fiscal Year 2002.

With this, there is a greater need to get a bridge legislation similar to the passage of a previous law providing 50,000 visas for Schedule A category.  Several bills are pending at the US Senate and House of Representatives that may address this immediate need for additional visas for nurses and PT’s.  For now, AlinsugLaw will continue to monitor any relevant development on this matter.

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