Question:
Is this true? Is there a chance that this application will never get
processed and that the EB-1 route will cease to exist? Any other
options you can think of to start this process off?
Answer:
My wife applied for a Green Card via Extraordinary Ability (EB1) as a
scientist. we used a local attorney and filed it in August 2002. We
have H1Bs at the moment, due to expire in October 2003. Our INS
projection possible approval date was this week for the Green Card.
It now transpires through our attorney that the INS hasn't processed
any EB1 applications since June 2002 and has "no plans" on when new
processing will commence. The attorney's advice was to "write to
Congress" to try and kickstart the process.
Is this true? Is there a chance that this application will never get
processed and that the EB-1 route will cease to exist? Any other
options you can think of to start this process off?
Some further information: It was actually a EB-2 application submitted
to the Texas BCIS Office.
Online status reads:
Application Type: I140, IMMIGRANT PETITION FOR ALIEN WORKER
Current Status:
Your I140 IMMIGRANT PETITION FOR ALIEN WORKER was received on August
20, 2002. We mailed you a receipt with information about processing.
It is taking between 175 and 200 days for us to process this kind of
case. We will mail you a decision as soon as processing is complete.
I can't tell you whether it is true or not, but it would not be all too
surprising; it happened in the past. INS (and I am sure now also BCIS)
seem to work permanently in emergency mode. Some type of application or
another is always behind schedule, and INS then throws all kinds of
resources at these cases - pulling them off other types of case and
letting those slide behind.
