12/22/2004
According
to the State Department prediction, some categories of employment-based cases
may see retrogression of visa numbers. In most likelihood, the potential
candidates are China and India and EB-3 rather than EB-2 or EB-1.
In
old days, no matter how long it took, the alien had to keep the employment
with the sponsoring employer or otherwise they lost the opportunity to adjust
status to a lawful permanent resident. Things have changed since then.
Now,
we have AC-21 that allows the alien to change employment after 180 days of
I-485 filing and the aliens have a better chance to survive while awaiting the
visa numbers and approval of I-485. That much, the immigrants of today are
luckier than the old immigrants.
Currently,
I-485 applicants cannot change employment unless the I-140 is "first
approved." Accordingly, not every I-485 waiter will have a luck to
survive. There is a potential policy that will come into play once the visa
number becomes unavailable - a policy of not adjudicating I-140 petitions for
those cases for which visa numbers are not available.
If
visa number is not available, it is likely that the USCIS will not adjudicate
I-140, no matter whether it is filed independently or concurrently with I-485.
Since I-140 will not be adjudicated until the visa number becomes available,
the aliens may not be able to change employment even if they file a concurrent
I-140/I-485 package. Depending on how long it will take to reach the numbers,
the system will produce a plenty of I-485 filer victims who may not be able to
survive the test of the times unless the economy really turns around and there
will be plenty of jobs for everyone.
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