Originally Posted by
Spectator
Q,
I'll take your 1,124 and raise it! Maybe. Perhaps. Sort of. LOL.
I know you are aware how complex this area is, so the following is mainly for the benefit of others.
The EB2-I Inventory did increase by 374 from October to January, but there were also approvals, so the real rise is greater than that.
We could say the rise was 757+374, but I think that overstates it.
What we can say is that reductions in months prior to May 2006 were probably due to approvals, whilst reductions after May 2006 cannot have been approvals since they were not Current.
Removing reductions pre May 2006 gives an adjusted increase in the Inventory of 634, so cases that could either be Porting, new applications or transfer from DO would be 757 + 634 = 1,391 or 5,564 cases for the year.
That figure is for all dates. Probably what is of more interest is how it will affect Cut Off Date movement in FY2011.
On the assumption that EB2-I doesn't move beyond December 2006, this would be 525 cases, so 1,282 per quarter or 5,128 per year.
All the above is on the assumption that the Visa Office used all of the 27% or 757 visas for EB2-I that they are statutorily allowed.
There is some evidence, from data DOS released as part of the EB3 Chinese Class Action Suit, that this is not the case.
Whilst China is shown separately, India is not, so the following figures are for all Countries except China in EB3. I wouldn't expect EB2 to be much different.
In FY2008 the VO used (allocated minus returns) 18.8% of the total visas for the year in Q1.
In FY2009 the VO used 47.8% of the visas in Q1.
In FY2010 (assuming all visas were used) then 36.5% were allocated in Q1.
That gives quite a wide spread. Using those percentages gives the following yearly totals for Porting, new applications and DO transfers up to the end of December 2006:
18.8% - 4,208
27.0% - 5,128
36.5% - 6,192
47.8% - 7,460
Because it is impossible to tell what the VO has done in FY2011, I am going to stick with 27% as the simplest course. That still happens to give a figure that is broadly in line with 4,000 Porting (a little less actually).