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| 1/13/2009 |
| Visa Bulletin for Employment Based February Availability |
As usual, the first preference category, for those most extraordinary alien workers who seek to immigrate to the U.S., remains currently available. This remains the safe harbor for the most talented alien workers. Availability in the second preference for all except India and China remains current too. With a National Interest Waiver and no labor certification, this is as good a category as the first preference (except for China and India). There is good news for China and India second preference categories in that they jumped forward. For China the forward movement was to January 1, 2005 by six months, and India to January 1, 2004, by a year and a half. Third preference worldwide remained at May 1, 2005 as did India's at October 15, 2001, which doesn't bode well for immigration in the professional and skilled worker categories. Less movement can be expected there, but for China, the third preference moved forward by four months. Other workers (least skilled) are backlogged to labor certification cases filed on March 15, 2003, across the board for all countries.
As a second option, some alien workers also apply for the diversity lottery. This may or may not be a wise decision, depending on the nonimmigrant category they're now in.
Diversity Visa advance notification category bank cut offs which will apply in March are: Africa to 26,800, Asia to 13,200, Europe to 19,800, Bahamas 6, Oceania to 675 and South America and the Caribbean, 850.
For more information, contact Alice Yardum-Hunter at 818 609 1953.
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