DECEMBER 2019 VISA BULLETIN: ANALYSIS AND PREDICTIONS

The Department of State has just issued the December 2019 Visa Bulletin. This is the third Visa Bulletin of Fiscal Year 2020. This blog post analyzes this month's Visa Bulletin. 

December 2019 Visa Bulletin

Table A: Final Action Dates -- Applications with these dates may be approved for their Green Card (Permanent Residency card) or Immigrant Visa appointment.

Employment- based	All Other	CHINA	INDIA	PHILIPPINES
1st	15JUN18	15MAY17	01JAN15	01JUN18
2nd	C	22JUN15	15MAY09	C
3rd	C	01NOV15	01JAN09	01MAR18

MU Law Analysis

All Other: Although All Other EB-1 has a slight retrogression, the EB-2 and EB-3 categories remained current and are expected to remain current for the foreseeable future.

China: EB-2 did progress by three months.  The EB-2 and EB-3 remain inverted, in spite of the fact that China EB-3 did not progress at all.  Over the course of FY2020 we expect EB-2 to catch up to EB-3 and the two categories to stay roughly   equal. 

India: As with China, the EB-2 and EB-3 dates remain inverted.  There was no material progress in either category.  We expect very little progress in either category in future months.

Philippines:  We remain surprised by the slow progress of EB-3.  The DOS indicated that demand for Adjust of Status cases is tamping down the promotion of dates.  Of course, Philippines EB-3 uses much less Adjust of Status visas than other categories, which makes this explanation suspect.  We still find the EB-3 priority date to be too conservative, but at this point we are no longer predicting as rosy progressions in early 2020.

MU IS MOVING OUR OFFICE – WE WILL BE CLOSED NOV 14, 15

Musillo Unkenholt will be moving its offices on Thursday November 14 and Friday November 15.  Accordingly, the law office will be closed over those two days.

Our new office will be at 302 W. Third Street.  The official address is:

Musillo Unkenholt LLC

302 West Third Street, Suite 710

Cincinnati, OH 45202

All government agencies have been notified about the move, including USCIS and DOL.  We do not expect any interruption in mail or service.

We are very excited for the move.  We have outgrown our current space.  Our new space is 50% larger than our current space.

If you are in the Cincinnati area on December 13, please let us know.  We will be having an open house in the afternoon.

FEDERAL JUDGE BLOCKS TRUMP’S HEALTH INSURANCE RULE

Over the weekend, a federal judge blocked Pres. Trump’s health insurance rule for immigrant visa applicants.  Under the rule, all intending immigrants would have had to prove that they were going to enroll in a qualifying health insurance plan within 30 days of entering the US. 

There is no timetable for how long the temporary restraining order will remain in effect.

USCIS ANNOUNCES FEE INCREASE EFFECTIVE DECEMBER 2, 2019

On October 30, 2019 the USCIS announced a proposed rule to increase the premium processing fee.  The premium processing fee will be raised from $1,410 to $1,440.  The fee increase will go into effect on December 2, 2019.

 

Premium processing is an optional service currently authorized for certain types of cases, notably filing an H-1B or an I-140. The system allows petitioners to request 15 day processing of these cases if they pay an extra fee. The premium processing fee is paid in addition to the base filing fee and any other applicable fees.

The USCIS is almost entirely funded by the fees paid by applicants and petitioners for immigration benefits.  The USCIS indicates this increase of the premium processing fee reflects the full amount of inflation from the implementation of the premium processing fee in June 2001 through August 2019 based on the Consumer Price Index for all Urban Consumers (CPI-U).