In what order 485s are approved

[gcpursuit]

Gurus,

I have a hypothetical question. I applied for aos in October 2015 ( PD June 2009). Assuming eb2 India cut off date moves beyond my PD, do I I have the same chance of approval as the person who applied in 2012 ? Or would USCIS clear 2012 cases? I am assuming that my 485 will be in an approvable stage if and when the PD moves. It's a big if but just holding on to a little hope seeing the latest rfe trends.

Thanks !!

[aquatican]

hello gcpursuit,
i am in the same boat with PD of June 2009 and filed for AOS in Oct 2015. I am not sure about how USCIS treats previously filed applications compared to more recent applications but legally they should work by PD.
So PD of June 1,2009 should get GC before PD of June 11,2009 ( regardless if the PD of June 1,2009 applied more recently)
but this is USCIS we are talking about. Their operations are quite 'black box' so we can't really say for sure.

Our chances improve once we are past their processing time frame and can start requesting status updates with calls to L2 and InfoPass.

[qesehmk]

gcpursuit - my understanding is that once the application is out of the 485 processing window - 99% applications from the same country / category should be assigned visa strictly by PD. The 1% exception is related to outstanding RFEs and FBI checks.

[gcpursuit]

Thanks Q and aquatican.

I hope tsc speeds up their processing time. Looks like its 7 months whereas nsc is at 4 months.
Anyways, getting gc this year sounds like a stretch given the less than usual spillover situation. Let's see.

[psychedelicNerd]

I think NSC is terribly slow as well these days. My PD is June 2004 (EB3-I) and my RD is Sept 28th, 2015. My 485 application consistently shows Fingerprint fee was received. I read in some forums that NSC processing times is more on the 6 month time frame. I am waiting till March end to open an SR.