Finding Your Place In Line For A 'Green Card'

For many foreign nationals living in the United States waiting to apply for a ‘green card’, a daily routine is to log-on to the U.S. Department of State website to check the status of their ‘priority date’ on the State Department’s ‘Visa Bulletin’.  Those who logged in yesterday were surprised to see the publication of the October 2015 Visa Bulletin with an extra Priority Date table.  But what does it mean? 

It’s a fairly significant new development.

But to grasp its significance, let’s take a step back to look at the big picture.

The U.S. Department of State regulates the issuance of ‘green cards’ based upon the distribution of immigrant visas around the world.  Since the demand for ‘green cards’ by natives of some countries (such as China, Mexico and India) is greater than the demand from other countries, there are not enough immigrant visas to supply the demand from these oversubscribed countries.  Consequently, there is a backlog of ‘green cards’ for these natives.

 Foreign nationals who originate from these countries must therefore ‘stand in line’ to wait to apply for their ‘green card’.  Their place in line is determined by the date the person either filed an immigrant visa petition – or an employer filed a labor certification application on this person’s behalf.  This date is known as a ‘Priority Date’.

Each month the U.S. Department of State publishes a ‘Visa Bulletin’ that charts the Dates of ‘green card’ applications being processed.  If a foreign national’s own ‘Priority Date’ is a date that precedes the ‘Priority Date’ published in the Visa Bulletin, that person is then eligible to file an application for a ‘green card’.  For example, if a foreign national has a ‘Priority Date’ of October 3, 2011, and the Priority Date shown on the Visa Bulletin for that person’s category shows January 1, 2012, then that foreign national may then apply for a ‘green card’.

Until the individual’s Priority Date precedes the Priority Date published in the Visa Bulletin, one could not file an application for a ‘green card’.   Until now…

The October 2015 Visa Bulletin offered a pleasant surprise for many:  a new, second chart known as a ‘Filing Date’ Chart.  Under this new provision, the U.S. Department of State will allow foreign nationals to file a ‘green card’ application based upon a new ‘Filing Date’ – rather than waiting for the date previously referred to simply as the ‘Priority Date’.  For most visa categories, the ‘Filing Date’ is more recent than the older ‘Priority Date’ (which is now also referred to as the ‘Final Action’ Date).

What this means is that the ‘Final Action Date’ is the date that the U.S. Department of State will actually process the ‘green card’ application.  This generally corresponds with the previous ‘Priority Date’ charts to which we were accustomed.  In other words, the U.S. Department of State will still wait until the foreign national’s ‘Priority Date’ is current before making a decision on the application – but the individual may now file the application well beforehand – based upon the new ‘Filing Date’ chart.

 Why is this important?  Because when a foreign national gets to file an Application for a ‘green card’, she may also concurrently file an application for Employment Authorization and Advance Parole (the ability to travel while the ‘green card’ application is pending).  In other words, ‘green card’ applicants from the oversubscribed countries may get some of the benefits that accompany a ‘green card’ application while still waiting in line for their ‘green card’ application to be processed.

So for example, this is how it might work: a foreign national from China in the EB-2 category (professional holding an advanced degree) may have a ‘Priority Date’ of June 12, 2013 based upon a Labor Certification Application filed on her behalf.  The ‘Priority Date’ / (Final Action Date) published in the October 2015 Visa Bulletin shows the Priority Date for that category to be January 1, 2012.  In previous months, this person would have to continue waiting until the Visa Bulletin shows a Priority Date in that category after June 12, 2013, before she could file an application – which may be a year or more away.  However, the new Visa Bulletin now shows a second ‘Filing Date’ chart that shows a date of May 1, 2014.  Since the foreign national’s ‘Priority Date’ precedes this new ‘Filing Date’, she is eligible to go ahead and file the ‘green card’ application.  Even though it still will not be processed until her June 12, 2013 Priority Date becomes current under the ‘Priority Date / Final Action Date, she can nonetheless go ahead and file the application and get Employment Authorization and Advance Parole for a family member(s) while they continue to wait in line for her Priority Date to become current.

The U.S. Department of State also asserts that allowing these foreign nationals to apply ahead of time will allow the State Department to more accurately predict the future availability of immigrant visas that will need to be processed.  Based upon the recent wild fluctuations in the Priority Dates for some of these categories in the past year, this can only be a good thing.

So, at the end of the day, these foreign nationals will still have to wait in line, as before – but at least they get to snack on some fairly significant benefits while standing there.