We have urgent news to report regarding Adjustment of Status filings.

• Employment-Based Visa Numbers Unavailable.  Just a couple of hours ago, the US Department of State (DOS) issued an updated July Visa Bulletin showing that visa numbers are unavailable as of today, July 2, 2007, for all employment-based visa categories.  This announcement, issued on the first possible day of permitted filing of eligible adjustment of status cases, is in direct contradiction to its Visa Bulletin issued June 14, 2007.  As a result, the USCIS just announced that it is following instructions from the DOS and it will reject all applications even if they are filed today.  
  

EMPLOYMENT-BASED SECOND AND THIRD PREFERENCE CATEGORIES ARE CURRENT FOR JULY

The Update:
We are very happy to relate that the July 2007 Department of State Visa Bulletin, just released yesterday, is now current for every First, Second and Third Employment-Based Category (but not for the “all other workers” category), for every country of chargeability, including India, China, Mexico and the Philippines. 

The comprehensive immigration reform bill entitled “Secure Borders, Economic Opportunity, and Immigration Reform Act,” has been dealt a deathblow by the Senate, and the vast legislative proposal to revise the entire immigration system is no longer moving forward at this time.  It remains to be seen whether President Bush and the Congress will re-visit immigration this session.          

We have more government updates to report.  The United States Citizenship & Immigration Service has announced that its long-anticipated filing fee increase will go into effect on July 30, 2007. While this presents an average increase of 66%, small consolations include (1) the Service recently had hinted that fees would rise in June, not July; and (2) this is the first major increase since the late 1990s.  We have highlighted below the most common cases affected by the fee increase, providing current filing fees and those filing fees for cases received on or after July 30, 2007. 

It is important to plan now to maximize employers' ability to file cases before July 30, 2007 and avoid, where feasible, the increased fees.  In this connection, we suggest you take the following steps to achieve cost effectiveness: