Finnan, Fleischut & Associates

Employment-Based (EB) Preference Categories

No Longer Available!

In a complete reversal from its own mid-June 2007 announcement, today the Department of State (DOS) announced that all Employment-Based (EB) immigrant visas had been allocated for the remainder of the Fiscal Year (FY2007).  As a result, there will be no immigrant visas available for any of the EB categories until at least the start of the next Fiscal Year (FY 2008), October 1, 2007.  DOS attributed this unprecedented situation to “sudden backlog reduction efforts” by USCIS in using up approximately 60,000 EB visa numbers.  DOS made “immediate adjustments” to its previously published cut-off dates. 

Just a few weeks ago, DOS announced that beginning July 1, 2007, visa numbers for the (EB) preference categories would be “current” for all priority dates regardless of country of birth.  The