Check-in with DOS’s Charlie Oppenheim: April 24, 2020
AILA Doc. No. 14071401 | Dated April 28, 2020
The AILA DOS Liaison Committee provides monthly “check-ins” with Charlie Oppenheim, designed to keep members informed of Visa Bulletin progress and to obtain his analysis of current trends and future projections, beyond the basic visa availability updates provided in the monthly Visa Bulletin.
Updates from Charlie
Does the April 22, 2020 Presidential Proclamation Impact How the Visa Bulletin is Prepared?
Charlie expects the June 2020 Visa Bulletin to be issued as it normally would, notwithstanding the April 22, 2020 Presidential Proclamation which suspends certain IV processing for at least 60 days.
This Month’s Check-in with Charlie Column Does Not Contain Additional Projection Information
Like most of us, Charlie is working remotely and only travels to his office when necessary to perform certain functions of his job.  As Charlie’s predictions are based upon data from certain government databases which cannot be accessed remotely, during this month’s conversation with AILA he was unable to pull statistics on visa number usage in real time.  As a result, we are unable to provide more nuanced projections in this month’s column.  
One of the programs that State makes available for USCIS use, is a 24/7 automated system that every USCIS officer uses at the end of the adjustment interview to request an immigrant visa number authorization.  After entering the required information, the officer presses a button and receives a message indicating that either the visa is “authorized by Charles Oppenheim”, or it will inform the officer that the visa is “not granted” as the priority date is not within the applicable final action date at that time.  In the latter case, the request for a visa number enters Charlie’s “pending demand file,” providing him visibility into pending demand which can be authorized for use when the final action date advances beyond the applicant’s priority date. 
This system was conceived by Charlie in 2000, was piloted in 2001 and went live in early fiscal year 2002.  Prior to this automated system, the State Department relied on (then) INS telephone and later fax requests requiring the manual authorization of immigrant visa number use for adjustment cases.  Prior to the transition to the automated system Charlie and his team was receiving ~425 faxes per day on three fax machines.  Given time zone differences, the manual process was not only inefficient, it created impossible situations for approving cases for late afternoon West Coast interviews.
Does COVID-19 Impact How the Visa Bulletin is Prepared?
This month the Visa Bulletin was issued much later than normal due to other pressing issues.  Notwithstanding these delays and the unprecedented impact on immigrant visa processing caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, Charlie has reassured AILA that he and his staff continue to follow the same methodology in analyzing supply, demand and number usage in determining the information for the Final Action Date and Dates for Filing charts.
Given the fluidity of the situation, Charlie strongly advises practitioners to monitor travel.state.gov for official announcements regarding overseas IV processing, and the equivalent sections of uscis.gov regarding the processing of adjustment of status applications. Charlie noted that the worldwide suspension of immigrant visa processing is a unique situation which they have not experienced before.  The most analogous situation occurred after September 11, 2001, but the impact only lasted for a short period of time in contrast to the longer duration expected as a result of COVID-19.  As a result, while there is leveraging of some lessons learned from the post-9/11 period, right now decisions are being made continually. Practitioners should anticipate that posts may reopen at different speeds and with varying degrees of consular services availability, depending on their respective situation. 
In May 2020, final action dates in the family-based preference categories continued to advance in a manner consistent with the advancements in March and April 2020.  That movement continues to be partly attributable to previous low applicant response/number use rates, partly to encourage applicants to continue to submit required documentation to the National Visa Center (NVC), and partly motivated by a desire to create the best possible situation to maximize immigrant visa number usage under this fiscal year’s annual limits.
The degree of impact that otherwise unused numbers will have on opening up visa usage in other categories will depend on how long consulates and USCIS offices remain closed.
Member Question
QUESTION: I have many nurses on OPT who are licensed in their state of practice right now. Their OPT status will expire in July or August and they have approved I-140.   Is there any provision for allowing these health care workers to file for adjustment of status so that they can be on the front lines where we need them?  Are you aware of any proposed legislation?  Any insight of this would be appreciated more than you would ever know. 
ANSWER:  Final action (e.g., visa issuance, adjustment of status) is dependent upon the applicant’s priority date being within the applicable final action date for the month in which such action would occur.  I am unaware of any legislative proposals to change that process at this time.  As mentioned earlier the best advice I can give is to closely monitor the travel.state.gov and equivalent USCIS web sites for the latest processing guidance.
Family-based Preference Categories
For now, Charlie anticipates that the family-based preference categories may continue to advance consistent with the most recent projections. 
In May, F2A, which became current back in July 2019, remains current. Beyond that, all other categories advanced between 7 weeks and 6 months.  The Philippines family-based preference categories advanced most rapidly with F2B Philippines advancing four months from February 1, 2010 to June 1, 2010, and F1 Philippines, F3 Philippines and F4 Philippines all advancing six months to September 1, 2010, November 15, 2000 and October 1, 2000 respectively.
F1 Worldwide (including F1 China and F1 India) advanced 7 weeks from January 1, 2014 to March 22, 2014.  F1 Mexico advanced 1 month from September 22, 1997 to October 22, 1997.
F2B Worldwide (including F2B China and F2B India) advances 2.5 months in May from November 1, 2014 to January 15, 2015.  In May F2B Mexico advances 1.5 months from December 1, 1998 to January 15, 1999.
F3 Worldwide (including F3 China and F3 India) advance 1.5 months in May from February 1, 2008 to March 15, 2008 and F3 Mexico advances one month from May 8, 1996 to June 8, 1996.
F4 Worldwide (including F4 China) advances 3 weeks in May from July 1, 2006 to July 22, 2006.  In May, F4 India advances 2 weeks from December 22, 2004 to January 8, 2005 and F4 Mexico advances one month from March 15, 1998 to April 15, 1998.
Employment-based Preference Categories
The big news in the employment-based preference categories is that EB-1 Worldwide (including El Salvador, Guatemala and Honduras, Mexico, Philippines, and Vietnam) returns to current in May 2020.  It had been previously predicted that such action was likely to occur at some point in the coming months.  As noted in last month’s column, any otherwise unused numbers will first be allocated to those applicants with the earliest priority dates, which will predominately impact EB-1 India.
In May, the final action date for EB-1 China will advance 5 weeks from June 8, 2017 to July 15, 2017 and EB-1 India will advance 3 months from May 1, 2015 to August 1, 2015. 
EB-2 Worldwide (including El Salvador, Guatemala and Honduras, Mexico, Philippines, and Vietnam) remains current in May. EB-2 China advances one month from September 1, 2015 to October 1, 2015, and EB-2 India advances 8 days from May 25, 2009 to June 2, 2009.
EB-3 Worldwide (including El Salvador, Guatemala and Honduras, Mexico, Philippines, and Vietnam) and EB-3 Worldwide Other Workers (including El Salvador, Guatemala and Honduras, Mexico, Philippines, and Vietnam) hold at January 1, 2017 in May 2020. EB-3 China advances 1 month from April 15, 2016 to May 15, 2016, and EB-3 China Other Workers advances two weeks from July 1, 2008 to July 15, 2008.  In May, the spread between EB-2 China and EB-3 China continues to widen, with EB-3 China’s final action date now 7.5 months ahead of EB-2 China.  EB-3 India and EB-3 India Other Workers both advance 5 weeks from January 22, 2009 to March 1, 2009 in May.
EB-4 Worldwide (including China, India, Philippines, and Vietnam) remain current in May.  EB-4 El Salvador, Guatemala, and Honduras advances one month from July 15, 2016 to August 15, 2016 in May. This advancement is due to less demand than expected materializing through the first week in April 2020.  As predicted, EB-4 Mexico advances more quickly in May, moving 13 weeks from January 22, 2018 to May 1, 2018.
EB-5 Worldwide (including El Salvador, Guatemala and Honduras, Mexico, and Philippines), Regional and Non-Regional Centers, remains current in May.  EB-5 China (Regional and Non-Regional Centers) advances 2 months from May 15, 2015 to July 15, 2015 in May.  EB-5 India (Regional and Non-Regional Centers) advances 9 months from January 1, 2019 to October 1, 2019.  EB-5 Vietnam (Regional and Non-Regional Centers) advances 7 weeks from February 8, 2017 to April 1, 2017.
Publicly available immigrant visa data is at the State Department’s website:
https://travel.state.gov/content/travel/en/legal/visa-law0/visa-statistics/immigrant-visa-statistics.html
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