USCIS recently posted frequently asked questions about fiscal year 2022 employment-based adjustment of status.
The overall employment-based annual limit for immigrant visas in fiscal year 2022 is approximately twice as high as usual, primarily due to consular closures abroad during the COVID-19 pandemic which led to almost all 140,000 family-sponsored visa numbers going unused during fiscal year 2021. USCIS is dedicated to ensuring they use as many available employment-based visas as possible in FY 2022, which ends on Sept. 30, 2022.
USCIS urges anyone who may be eligible for an employment-based adjustment of status to file their adjustment of status application, accompanied by a valid Form I-693, Report of Medical Examination and Vaccination Record, as soon as possible.
FAQs:
How many employment-based visas did USCIS and DOS use in FY 2021? How many employment-based visas went unused in FY 2021?
The annual limit for employment-based visa use in FY 2021 was 262,288, nearly double the typical annual total. The Department of State (DOS) publishes the official figures for visa use in their Report of the Visa Office. Overall, the two agencies combined to use 195,507 employment-based immigrant visas in FY 2021. DOS issued 19,779 employment-based immigrant visas, and USCIS used 175,728 employment-based immigrant visas through adjustment of status, more than 52% higher than the average before the pandemic. Despite our best efforts, 66,781 visas went unused at the end of FY 2021.
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Is there any estimate of how many family-sponsored or employment-based immigrant visas USCIS and DOS will use during FY 2022?
DOS currently estimates that the FY 2022 employment-based annual limit will be approximately 280,000 – double the typical annual total – due to unused family-based visa numbers from FY 2021 “falling across” to the current fiscal year. As of mid-June 2022, USCIS and DOS have used significantly more visas than at the same point in FY 2021, with USCIS alone using more than twice as many visas on a weekly basis than it was at this point in FY 2021. As a result, we are well-positioned to use all of the available employment-based immigrant visas in FY 2022 despite the higher annual limit.
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What measures has USCIS taken during FY 2022 to use the available employment-based visas?
We have taken the following measures in our effort to use all of the available employment-based visas during FY 2022:
- Prioritized the processing and adjudication of employment-based adjustment of status applications and underlying petitions at our Lockbox intake facilities, the National Benefits Center, our service centers, and our field offices
- Continued to apply risk-based interview waiver determinations for employment-based adjustment of status applications, resulting in most applications being adjudicated without interview;
- Worked collaboratively with DOS to ensure that the dates in the Visa Bulletin have been significantly advanced to allow for the filing and adjudication of sufficient immigrant visa and adjustment of status applications;
- Allowed applicants to use the Dates for Filing chart in the DOS Visa Bulletin through May 2022;
- Provided overtime funds and supplemental USCIS staff to support employment-based adjustment of status and underlying petition processing and adjudication
- Prioritized the adjudication of underlying immigrant visa petitions (after accounting for premium processing) to focus our efforts on beneficiaries who may receive immigrant visas in FY 2022;
- Eliminated a major backlog of noncitizens awaiting biometrics appointments, which stood at 1.4 million in January 2021, and launched a biometric reuse process to reuse for certain applicants to create efficiencies. Redistributed employment-based adjustment of status workloads between offices and directorates to match the workloads with the available resources;
- Published communication materials in January, February, March, and April 2022 notifying the public that USCIS lacked sufficient inventory in the EB-1 and EB-2 categories and encouraging eligible noncitizens to consider applying for adjustment of status in those categories;
- Established a new process and a dedicated single mailing address for receiving requests from employment-based adjustment of status applicants who wish to transfer their pending adjustment of status applications to a different employment-based category;
- Published communication materials about this new transfer of underlying basis process, encouraging eligible noncitizens to consider submitting requests;
- Published communication materials encouraging potential adjustment of status applicants to include a valid Form I-693, Report of Medical Examination and Vaccination Record, with their adjustment of status applications;
- Proactively identified applications that lack a valid Form I-693 and issued requests for evidence;
- Since Dec. 9, 2021, in collaboration with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, temporarily waived the requirement that the civil surgeon sign Form I-693 no more than 60 days before an applicant files an AOS, through Sept. 30, 2022; and
- Initiated an ambitious hiring plan dedicated to filling 95% of the agency’s vacancies by the end of calendar year 2022. This additional personnel will add to our capacity to process and adjudicate all pending applications, petitions, and requests, including employment-based visas.
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If I receive a notice of the transfer of my Form I-485 to another office, does this signal that my case is active and moving toward adjudication?
Generally, yes. We are actively transferring tens of thousands of employment-based adjustment of status applications with approved immigrant visa petitions and available visas from service centers to the Field Operations Directorate, and within that directorate between the National Benefits Center and individual field offices. While there are other reasons an application may be transferred between offices, a transfer notice is indicative of activity in the processing of your application. We are making these transfers to maximize the use of all of our resources across the agency to ensure we use all visas available this fiscal year.
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My immigrant visa petition has been approved and a visa is available to me under the Final Action Dates chart, but it appears that my adjustment of status application may not have been transferred from the Texas or Nebraska Service Centers to the Field Operations Directorate. Why not?
Our efforts to identify and transfer adjustment of status applications with approved petitions and available visas from the service centers to the Field Operations Directorate are ongoing. As of early June 2022, we have not yet transferred all the files. USCIS also approves thousands of new petitions linked to pending adjustment of status applications each week. In addition, not every application with an approved petition and available visa has been targeted for transfer to the Field Operations Directorate immediately. If a service center has issued a Request for Evidence or is otherwise actively processing a pending benefit request, the file will not be transferred at this time but may be transferred later. As of mid-June 2022, approximately 67,000 applications have been transferred from the service centers to the Field Operations Directorate.
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Why does the data on the USCIS website show such lengthy processing times for I-485s at the Texas Service Center and the Nebraska Service Center?
We understand that it can be disconcerting when the processing times on our website, especially at the Texas Service Center and Nebraska Service Center, seem to get longer as the end of this fiscal year approaches. Please rest assured that this is mostly a function of USCIS moving work from these service centers to the National Benefits Center, leaving behind smaller numbers with a higher proportion of outliers in terms of processing time.
We want to emphasize that in order to attempt to use all of the employment-based visas available in FY 2022, USCIS is identifying and prioritizing the adjudication of all employment-based adjustment of status applications with available visas and approved underlying petitions, wherever they are in the process.
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Why did USCIS encourage new EB-1 and EB-2 Filings from January through May as well as Transfer of Basis Requests from EB-3?
We evaluated our inventory in December 2021 and noted a need for significant numbers of additional applications in the EB-1 and EB-2 categories if we, along with DOS, were to be able to reach the annual limit. By contrast, existing inventory in EB-3 and EB-4 was already sufficient by then.
To address this shortfall, we and our partners at DOS have encouraged individuals to consider transferring the underlying basis of their pending EB-3 applications to EB-1 or EB-2, if eligible.
