REVISED VISA BULLETIN REVEALS TONE DEAF USCIS

On late Friday afternoon the USCIS and DOS issued a revised October 2015 Visa Bulletin.  The new revised Visa Bulletin has a devastating impact on those in the US and who qualify as China EB-2, India EB-2, and Philippines EB-3. 

Revised October 2015 Visa Bulletin (Changes in bold)

Employment- Based	All Other	CHINA - mainland born	INDIA	PHILIPPINES
1st	C	C	C	C
2nd	C	01JAN13	01JUL09	C
3rd	01SEP15	01OCT13	01JUL05	01JAN10

Original October 2015 Visa Bulletin

Employment- Based	All Other	CHINA - mainland born	INDIA	PHILIPPINES
1st	C	C	C	C
2nd	C	01MAY14	01JUL11	C
3rd	01SEP15	01OCT13	01JUL05	01JAN15

The USCIS published a stilted “explanation” for the revision,

Following consultations with the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), the Dates for Filing Applications for some categories in the Family-Sponsored and Employment-Based preferences have been adjusted to better reflect a timeframe justifying immediate action in the application process.

For the most part I stay away from commentary on this blog.  Not today.

This revised Visa Bulletin means that the majority of people who could have filed their I-485s on October 1, 2015, now must indefinitely wait.  Allowing long-suffering workers the flexibility that would come with the filing of I-485s would have been excellent policy.  Implementing that policy was excellent government action.  Implementing the policy and then rescinding the policy is incompetence.

These government bureaucrats are tone-deaf to the actual human beings behind these petitions.   These agencies had ten months to implement this system.  The idea that these agencies only consulted in the last two weeks is preposterous. 

Many of these immigrant workers spent thousands of dollars hiring counsel to prepare their Applications.  They took time off from their jobs to subject themselves to ridiculously unnecessary (and costly) medical examinations. 

Worse than the dollars spent and the time spent is the crushing of these immigrants’ hope.  These are the immigrants who continually get trashed by an immigration system that cannot get out of its own way. 

There are already rumors that the USCIS and DOS are being threatened with lawsuits.  There is also a rumor that the USCIS and DOS may not want to repeat the fiasco that was the Visa Gate in 2007, and therefore may rescind this Revised Visa Bulletin.