EB-3 Visas

A frequent query I always receive — via email — from my blog readers pertains to the employment-based 3rd preference (EB-3).

EB-3 is the category for Skilled Workers, Professionals, and Other Workers. This is the immigrant preference category for our Philippine nurses and other professionals.

EB-3 has a visa allocation of 28.6% of the worldwide level, plus any numbers not required by first and second preferences, and not more than 10,000 of which goes to Other Workers.

In their emails, many blog readers have asked: “What’s going on with the EB-3 visa numbers?”

As some may have heard, the EB-3 category has no available visa numbers since May 2009 for beneficiaries from all countries around the world, including the Philippines.

As a result of this unavailability of visa, the cases of many immigrant visa applicants, including those applicants waiting to adjust their status in the United States, have been put on hold.

Before May 2009, visa numbers in the EB-3 category for all countries had retrogressed to March 1, 2003 for Skilled Workers and Professionals — and to March 1, 2001 for Other Workers.

Some have also asked whether there would be a visa movement by October 1, 2009 — the start of the immigration fiscal year. I replied that they shouldn’t put much hope for a big change by October 1. There could be a little visa movement, but not a significant one that would give a visa to every applicant.

What does this mean to our EB-3 visa applicants? Given the unpredictability of visa numbers in the EB-3 category, many EB-3 visa applicants may have to hunker down for a long wait for their visa numbers.

H1B Visa

As I have discussed in my previous postings, H1B is a nonimmigrant visa used by foreign professionals to enter the United States and to work for US employers. This visa is available to foreign professionals (e.g., accountants, architects, college professors, computer programmers, etc.) hired by US employers to fill “specialty occupations” on a temporary basis.

The current annual cap on the H1B visa category is 65,000. However, not all H1B nonimmigrants are subject to this annual cap. Those not covered by the cap are H1B nonimmigrants who are employed, or who will be employed, by institutions of higher education or a related or affiliated nonprofit entity. Also not covered are those employed, or who will be employed by a nonprofit research organization or a governmental research organization.

In addition, under the provisions of the H1B Visa Reform Act of 2004, foreign professionals with master’s or higher level degree from a U.S. academic institution are allocated 20,000 new H1B visas.

On its recent H1B update, the US Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) said that, as of July 3, 2009, approximately 45,000 H1B cap-subject petitions had been filed. In other words, there remains some 20,000 H1B visas — months after the USCIS started to accept H1B petitions on April 1, 2009.

As some might notice, this situation is a sharp contrast to what happened in the previous years — as in 2008 for instance — when H1B visas were scooped up within a week from the start of the filing period.

This situation only shows how the US economy has gone to pot. Recession has reared its ugly head: many businesses have closed shops and workers have been laid off from work. Consequently, some US employers have no need for foreign workers. And this obviously explains the low usage for H1B visas this year.

Mea Maxima Culpa!

Mea Maxima Culpa! Yes, I’ve not updated my blog for months. Posting on my blog has taken a back seat in my schedule.

Many readers have emailed me asking if I’ve abandoned the blog. Certainly not. I replied to them saying that I had been inundated with a stream of immigration cases that took away much of my time from updating the blog. I assured them, however, that I’ll resume my posting soon.

Yes, with my trusty BlackBerry at hand — I should now be able to keep up with my blog posting wherever I am.