For EB3-ROW-M-C, there is only demand data until July 2007. No-one else has been able to file their I-485. There may be some demand data for CP cases, not sure how that works.
Printable View
The Demand Data basically contains no numbers for EB3 beyond July 2007.
No AOS case can ever have been submitted and pre-adjudicated and very few (if any) CP cases with a PD beyond July 2007 can have become "documentarily qualified" since NVC won't have sent out the packets previously.
Look at EB3-P. They had 38k CP cases at NVC in November 2012. The Demand Data showed about 7k at about the same time (and probably half of those are AOS cases). So about 3.5 -4k of those 38k were actually in the Demand Data.
I mentioned post 2008 because WW PERM didn't start declining substantially until then. 2009 was low for everybody due to the recession. After that many more people seem to be applying under EB2, so it is possible EB3 numbers are now much lower.
I don't think CO will reach the interesting dates this time round.
To answer my own questions, is this the link you are looking at ?
http://www.travel.state.gov/pdf/WaitingListItem.pdf
gc_soon,
Yes, that the one.
Spec
EB3-P and EB3-M until they hit the overall 7% limit, then EB3-I.
EB3-M use is rather limited by sharing the same Cut Off date as EB3-ROW and probably won't be a factor.
Given that FB-P uses 7% then EB-P has about 11k total visas available across the 5 Categories. EB1-P, EB2-P, EB4-P and EB5-P might use 4.6k, leaving about 6.4k to EB3-P and still stay within the overall 7% limit. That needs to happen within not more than the EB3-WW Cut Off Date.
In practice, EB3-ROW numbers are reduced by that factor.
In theory, EB3-ROW has 32.8k visas but that would probably be reduced to about 29.5k by EB3-P use.
If the above figures were correct, and if EB3-ROW use was less than 29.5k, then the spare visas would be available for EB3-I to use.
Whichever way the USCIS defines it, there is a reason there is a classification / prioritization. There should never be a situation where a lower classification gets priority over a higher classification. As for the experience/education bit, I challenge that assertion. An EB2 with 10-15 yrs experience will NOT get approved as an EB1 (in 99% cases).
I'm not sure what your comment about doctors, researchers, etc. implies. The reason there are categories is so that the theoretical needs get met in order of priority. Therefore a lower priority shouldnt get ahead of a higher priority under any circumstances.
EB1 is a totally different animal, the terms for EB1 is so vague and again it goes back to the weird laws governing that category. For instance, US MBA is not part of STEM but a Multi-National manager is part of EB (I recently posted this in the CIR section too). So it all goes back to the WEIRDNESS!
Earlier, I was talking specifically about EB2 and EB3.
Exactly Spec! Don't you think there should be a better way for CO to know what the demand should be instead of him moving the dates and even that won't be exact #s in a year or two as more and more people will either port or leave the country or get married outside the country and come back with more dependents. Don't you think CO is repeating his mistakes again? All these causes USCIS to prick the low hanging fruits as it approaches the end of the fiscal. I'm not speaking "FOR" USCIS here as they are the culprits first place - by not providing the data needed for CO to do a better job. Either CO should be part of USCIS or USCIS should take over the visa # allocation process (I know it causes other issues but the current issue is far worse than what we are facing right now with this absurd date movements)
CO could atleast look at 485 inventory for some signal. Last year the 485 pending inventory showed big numbers for EB2-I, but CO didnt seem to look at it but just the demand data and say "extremely low demand". CO also gave false hopes that effort will be made to move dates back to May 2010, only to keeo dates frozen at Sep 2004 for long time.
In this day and age, it's just unimaginable that an idea about demand can not be obtained without moving dates erratically. Just USCIS and DOS should make effort to track and report certain things. But unfortunately such effort may not be a priority, as long as DOS doesnt waste visa numbers which seems to be their priority. End of rant.
I think you said it yourself - USCIS need to provide better information to DOS.
It is entirely within USCIS capability (or should I say should be) to provide the numbers from approved I-140 by Category, Country of Chargeability and PD (in the same way as DOS compile it for CP cases once USCIS send the approved I-140 or I-130 to NVC).
DOS would then have very good visibility of likely future demand (including many of the dependents) without having to force the issue by moving Cut Off Dates forward to force USCIS to adjudicate I-485 cases.
USCIS have consistently shown an unwillingness to compile the information required and requested by DOS.
USCIS were essentially forced to compile and publish the Inventory after the events of July 2007. I took them 2 years to do so. It also forced them to actually start pre-adjudicating more cases.
I can't think of a worse agency to run the visa allocation system than USCIS (at one time, DOL would have been pretty close). They can't even coordinate over a few Service Centres and Field Offices in the same Country, let alone with Consular Posts around the World.
The predecessor to USCIS lost the battle as to who controlled visa allocations a long time ago. They have acted like sore losers ever since and done nothing to suggest that the original decision was anything other than the correct one.
There are a lot of topics going on which I missed, but a few thoughts.
a) EB3 ROW: I do think that controller will not repeat fully what he did with EB2-I last fiscal. He will open the flood gates slowly. I was checking the labor data from fiscal year 2008, the current date movement may help him use the visas in EB3 without wastage. As labor data is very old, there may have a lot changes( porting, abandonment etc), a couple of months more will be sufficient. But in order to build a little more demand he may open it up further to possibly mid to late 2008. As the demand will only show up fully only by late July, August is possibly the last month of movement. So he is looking into building inventory for rest of this fiscal and may be one more fiscal.One more month will help us conclude his direction fully.
b)EB2-I and EB2-C: I fully agree with Specs thoughts that atleast for this fiscal EB2-C will not share the same priority date with EB2-I. So any spillover left after EB2-ROW usage will fully become availiable to EB2I.
I'm not sure I follow your argument entirely.
The latest USCIS Inventory available was from January 2012 and that showed just 3.7k 2008 PD cases. The numbers for Jan-Mar 2008 (most of which had been Current over a month) were not that high. They were only about 40% of the likely true figure.
Only when the May Inventory was published did the figures become more apparent (and by that time a large number of PD 2008 cases had already been approved).
I remember we discussed it at the time - USCIS appeared to have a lag time of up to 2 months before receipts were transformed into any useable numbers. We could see some of that from the Trackitt data, which suggested far higher numbers than USCIS were reporting.
If USCIS were suggesting further forward movement in May, they clearly had absolutely no idea of the numbers in their own system.
I don't want to sound like an apologist for DOS - I am sure there are things they could have done better. The whole episode is a classic example of Garbage In Garbage Out.
Since USCIS account for around 90% of EB approvals, it is their responsibility to provide better information.
DOS knew their own exact usage for CP (barring returns) a month in advance of the VB taking effect.
Spec,
Appreciate the the reply. I guess I must be wrong about the pending inventory availability.
If the inventory was published only in May 2012, then it makes sense, it must be already too late for CO then. However, I'm not sure if CO looked at the pending inventory as he said every effort would be made to bring back COD to May 2010. Just saying DOS should make some effort to guesstimate demand based on pending inventory and PERM data. It's not as good as data that can be reported by USCIS directly. But still if CO took those into consideration(if not already) it would be better.
Based on the latest Demand Data could the better informed analyse the SOFAD? Thanks
Matt,
To finally get back to your question.
It is a bit weird isn't it?
Up until the March DD the figures were either below or very close to the January Inventory numbers.
Then we had the that very odd April DD, where EB2-I yearly figures were increasing and decreasing all over the place (2004, 2005 & 2006 all went up, 2007 decreased and 2008 decreased a large amount).
I don't think anyone knows what was going on there. Maybe the comparison is not apples to apples any longer.
Of course, it also assumes that the USCIS Inventory had captured all the cases and was accurate.
I really don't know.
The PERM Processing Times have been updated as of April 1, 2013.
There is also a new PERM Factsheet with the Q2 figures.
Some quick figures from the PERM Factsheet:
Receipts
YTD - 36,660 (20% Higher than FY2012)
Q2 receipts were 15% higher than Q1.
Processed
YTD - 26,479
Q2 processed were 15% lower than Q1.
Certified
YTD - 21,149
Q2 Certified were 25% lower than Q1.
% in Analyst Review increased from 48% at the end of Q1 to to 58% at the end of Q2.
% in Audit decreased from 37% at the end of Q1 to to 30% at the end of Q2.
% in appeal decreased from 14% at the end of Q1 to to 11% at the end of Q2.
The % where Minimum Education Requirements was Advanced Degree increased from 45% at the end of Q1 to to 53% at the end of Q2. Given a further 38% required at least a Bachelors Degree, the number applying under EB2 must be well over 60% and nearer 70%. I think the 45% in Q1 is a mistake and actually the number are all pretty much unchanged in Q2.
The Top Country of Citizenship remains India and increased from 57% at the end of Q1 to to 59% at the end of Q2.
PERM Processing Times
Regular - remains unchanged at about 4 months.
Audit - increases one month to about 9 months.
Appeal and Government Error times remain unchanged.
Just a few observations:
Between October EB2I Inventory (2005-2010) and Jan Inventory (2005-2010) there are only a minor net difference. 41735 Vs. 41777. That only means USICS stacked at some place and later re-distributed. Or there were multiple I-140’s involved as priority date was not properly re-captured. February Demand data came very close to the number (41700-275) which is 41400. In March the numbers went above (42100) and in April it came back to 41600 and in May 42200. I am ignoring 2004 demand as the dates are mostly current. So there is an approximate net addition of 400 applicants between Oct/Jan inventory and May demand.
Now let us compare for the same period in in EB3I which is 2005 onwards. Between October EB3I Inventory (2005 onwards) and Jan Inventory (2005 onwards) there are net difference of 470. 21554 Vs. 21084. So it is clear that the deduction of 470 was not immediately visible in EB2 inventory which is only 30 additions. The demand data for EB3I of 21475 in November vs. 21000 in February is also very close to inventory numbers. But when it comes to demand data May EB3I for the same period is 20550. A reduction of 550 applicants. So in this fiscal there was a total reduction of 470 +550, roughly 1000 reductions in EB3.
I am not sure whether I should co-relate the additions in EB2 to the deductions in EB3. From out of the initial 470 reductions in EB3 there is very close co-relation of 400 additions. Is it possible that demand reduces faster but addition to the new category takes time? The thought does not support USICS established procedures, but Just an observation
Spec,
I was checking the labor data, I did see a drop in EB2-ROW approvals!!
MATT
You'll have to expand on what you were looking at for that to have any meaning!
I see that EB2-WW account for 2% less Certifications at the end of Q2 than they did at the end of Q1 according to the PERM Factsheet. Overall, I would be more worried that receipts at this stage are 20% higher than last year (36,660 vs 30,400). China and India do not solely account for that rise, so eventually WW numbers may actually be higher.
I do know that the number of ROW PERM Certifications were lower in Q1 2013, but that was due to a slowdown in DOL processing speed.
The underlying monthly numbers for PD2012 were actually very similar to PD2011.
The number of Certifications in Q2 is far lower than even Q1 despite an increase in receipts (see my edit to the original post). I'm a bit shocked at how poorly DOL performed in Q2. I doubt they processed many cases beyond a PD of 2012.
The slowdown might be helpful to EB2-I for this FY (I'm certainly keeping an eye on it and will see what the Q2 Disclosure data has to say), but it will just delay the pain to a future FY if CIR does not pass.
Spec, check the below numbers I derived from the data for EB2 ROW. The 2nd Qtr had dropped to 1667. I have used 100% conversion factor for I485, and to accomodate dependants I doubled it. I have taken five quarters of data to accomodate the extra quarter for this fiscal.
2012 3rd Qtr---------- 3622
2012 4th Qtr.--------- 4218
2013 1st Qtr. -------- 2286
2013 2nd Qtr.-------- 1667
2013 3rd Projected ----2948
Total-------------------14741
NIW--------------- 2948
Total-------- 17690
I485 Conversion----35379
The increase in receipts and reduction in approvals is worrysome. This may have an impact next fiscal. There is possibly one more quarter of EB-WW labor approvals which has the possibility of consuming visa numbers this fiscal. Hopefully CIR will come as the savior!!
Matt,
Yes, which is why i said
The last time I looked at the PWD, about 78% of requests appeared to be for EB2 jobs based on the minimum requirements (AD & Bachelors +5).Quote:
Given a further 38% required at least a Bachelors Degree, the number applying under EB2 must be well over 60% and nearer 70%.
PERM wouldn't be that high since the the PWD undoubtedly contains multiple requests for the same position.
About 65% of the Bachelors PWD cases also required at least 5 years experience, so I wouldn't be surprised if half the PERM Bachelors cases were also EB2. 53% + 19% = 72%
I can't reproduce your numbers. I'm not sure if you are referring to ROW or WW (ROW-M-P). Either way, the PERM figures look too low. Possibly I am misunderstanding what you are calculating and from what data source.
When I did the calculation for ROW only using the 2 PERM Factsheets published this FY and the one published at the end of FY2012 and
a) Used known historical data to account for Mexico since that isn't part of the PERM Factsheet.
b) Used 65% as EB2 cases of total PERM and 2 I-485 per PERM.
c) Used the current rate of 19% for NIW.
b) Used the current rate of 8% Indian Nationality, but ROW Chargeability.
I get a figure of 33.5k for ROW if I use your assumption of 2.9k for Q3 2013.
The calculated ROW PERM figures from the PERM Factsheet were a very good match to the actual numbers from the disclosure data, so I have a high confidence that I have calculated correctly.
I actually think it is more likely to take 6 months from PERM certification to I-485 approval, so the Q3 number is unnecessary and I therefore did a second calculation and took the 5 quarters back to Q2 2012. Only those people who PP might creep in from a Q3 2013 PERM Certification.
That gave a figure of 33.0k, so it is basically the same either way. That is against the revised ROW allocation of 32.5k.
Both Mexico and Philippines behave very differently, so the same assumptions wouldn't hold for them. That's why I specifically calculated ROW only.
Perhaps you want to walk me through how you calculated Q1 and Q2 2013 and we can see where the difference is?
Given that Indian & Chinese may have an higher percentage of Advanced Degree and their combined weightage is high( more in numbers), Will EB2-WW have roughly 55-60% ?? My thought was EB2-WW will be around 55%. I remember US Non immigration blog site had an aproximation of 50%, but that was a two years ago.
Also I did nt include the 8% Indian nationality getting charged to ROW, Thanks for throwing light into it. Though one of my colleagues recently did it, ooops My bad.
Matt,
That was a blog I used to enjoy, although I never agreed with that figure. It's a shame it just died suddenly.
It might have been 50% a long time ago, but not any longer, exactly as it has increased for India.
The difference in Cut off dates for ROW between EB2 and EB3 is similar to that for India (~6 years).
Nobody wants to file in EB3 if they have to. It is equally unattractive whatever Country a person comes from.
I'm not sure why you think a ROW applicant is less likely to have an Advanced Degree. The high number of NIW and approvals in EB1 and EB2 would suggest otherwise.
ROW represent the second highest % of PERM applications, with China a very distant third. I once did the calculation which showed the ROW % had to be nearly as high as India's to maintain the overall %, since Mexico and Philippines have far higher numbers in EB3. China's % isn't as high as you would think, because they also have a large number of EB3-EW applicants. Check out their Cut Off Date.
ROW could not have such high EB2 approvals if a high % of the PERM based I-140 were not filed under EB2. The figures simply wouldn't work otherwise.
Spec,
I was just speaking from the labor perspective not from ROW advanced degree perspective. I did a filter for PERM raw file with a Salary of 70K or more for WW except I & C, if I am not wrong it came between 55-60 %. it was difficult to get a straight figure as there were hourly, monthly etc, I did nt bother to convert. I just wanted to know the trend. As salary also cannot determine the category, I left it there.
I have great respect ROW as the education circumstances are totally different than what I had .
I used to enjoy the website too, never knew why they shut down. There was another one named immigration watch. they used provide a lot statistics. They also died.
Coming back to the numbers on PERM, Do you think that the EB2WW max around 38K, I mean including M and P.?
Thanks Spec for all your expert thoughts, there are very few folks in the internet forum who would provide detailed statistical back up for their respective predictions.
MATT
AC-21 and H1B
Hi Gurus,
I have few questions about AC-21 and H1 visa. I have an offer and planning to invoke AC-21. My priority date is July 2008, EB2I. I am in my 8th year of H1. The new company has agreed to transfer H1 and will also send AC-21 docs to USCIS. If for some reason, my 485 gets rejected, can I still stay on H1 as my H1 will be valid till 2016 (current H1 expires in 2014, I am assuming when the new company files for H1 transfer I will get 3 years of H1 extension based on I-140 approval and AOS pending)? I know you can file MTR, if 485 gets rejected, but just want to know my options before invoking AC-21. I am moving from a Manager role to Director role. As per My labor, my current job requirement is Masters plus 3 years of experience. The new job requirement is Bachelor's with 8+ years of experience.
Thanks in advance.
Some additional info that I thought I should share with the folks on this forum. Unfortunately, it doesn't sound very positive based on the attorney's short response (without much detail). This was in response to a question that I had posted on the attorney's website regarding an article they had about an upcoming meeting with CO. See link in the email conversation below. I will try to ask for more details.
--------------------------------------------------
From: David Ware <dware@david-ware.com>
Date: Sun, Apr 14, 2013 at 2:00 PM
Subject: RE: [General inquiries] Outcome of meeting with Charles Oppenheim
To: <---@gmail.com>
Yes, india EB 2 will advance a bit, not much by July or August.
David Ware
Attorney at law
Ware|Gasparian
3850 N. Causeway Blvd., Suite 555
Metairie Louisiana 70002-1752
Phone: (504) 830 5900/(800) 537 0179
Fax: (504) 830 5909
Other Locations: Baton Rouge. Jackson. Pensacola. Birmingham. Seattle
To visit our website, click on the logo below.
If you wish to make an appointment: Please call Yolanda Mata at the numbers above.
-----Original Message-----
From: info@david-ware.com [mailto:info@david-ware.com] On Behalf Of ---@gmail.com
Sent: Friday, April 12, 2013 2:01 PM
To: David Ware
Subject: [General inquiries] Outcome of meeting with Charles Oppenheim
--- sent a message using the contact form at http://david-ware.com/contact.
Hi,
You have an article on your website that states that you were going to have a meeting with Charles Oppenheim on April 6 to get projections for EB2 India and China. Below is the link to the article. Were you able to meet with Mr.
Oppenheim and would you be able to share the outcome of that meeting?
http://david-ware.com/immigration-in...eb-2-and-india
Thanks.
Yes you can get 3 years extension based on approved I140 on h1 transfer. I got 3 yrs extension in a similar scenario.
Thank you, Vizcard and Vkkpnm.
So if 485 gets rejected, I can start my green card process by retaining the old priority date?
Thanks!