CEAC MALFUNCTIONS CAUSE DELAYS TO CONSULAR CASES

The Consular Electronic Application Center (CEAC) is the online platform where one submits fees, forms, and documents to the National Visa Center (NVC). In the last two months, MU has observed two primary malfunctions on CEAC. Please note, these malfunctions are seemingly random and do not affect every case.

The most prominent malfunction prevents the payment of IV fee bills, causing delays for many cases. This malfunction causes CEAC to reject fee bill payments or causes payments to be “in process” for long periods of time.

MU has submitted inquiries to the NVC about the payment malfunction, requesting a solution. In reply, the NVC stated it is working to correct the malfunction. The NVC provided no estimate for when it would fix this malfunction.

The second malfunction mislabels dependents as Follow-to-Join instead of Accompanying, and vice versa. This prevents the completion of case, even if fee bills have already been paid.

MU has submitted inquiries to the NVC about these and other malfunctions but has yet to receive a response. MU is working to resolve these issues through other contacts and hopes the NVC will act soon to move the cases forward.  If you have questions about your specific case, please contact your MU attorney.

NOVEMBER 2022 VISA BULLETIN: ANALYSIS AND PREDICTIONS

The Department of State has recently issued the November 2022 Visa Bulletin.  This blog post analyzes this month's Visa Bulletin.

Visa Bulletin

Table A:  Final Action Dates -- Applications with these dates may be approved for their Green Card (Permanent Residency card) or Immigrant Visa appointment.

 

EB	Worldwide	CHINA	INDIA	PHILIPPINES
1st	C	C	C	C
2nd	C	08JUN19	01APR12	C
3rd	C	15JUN18	01APR12	C
Other workers	01JUN20	01SEP12	01APR12	01JUN20

Table B: Dates of Filing

The USCIS is using the Table B Dates of Filing chart for I-485 employment-based filings. See: USCIS Visa Bulletin Dates

MU Law Analysis

All dates remained the same as in the October 2022 Visa Bulletin.  USCIS has stated that the USCIS expects retrogression in India EB2 in the coming months due to high demand.  It remains to be seen if India EB-3 will also retrogress at some point.

The WW and Philippine EB-3 remain current. We expect these categories to be current through the fiscal year.

EB-3 Other Workers, which is the category for occupations that require less than two years of education or experience to perform the job, remains retrogressed but did move forward from May 2019 to June 2020 for Philippines and ROW.  We do not expect further retrogression in these two categories.

USCIS EXTENDS GREEN CARD VALIDITY EXTENSION TO 24 MONTHS FOR GREEN CARD RENEWALS

On September 28, 2022, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) issued a news alert, announcing, effective September 26, Lawful Permanent Residents who properly file Form-I-90 to replace an expired or expiring green card will receive an automatic 24-month extension, as opposed to the previous 12-month extension.

Receipt notices for Form I-90 should now include updated language granting Lawful Permanent Residents the automatic 24-month extension. USCIS is in the process of printing amended receipt notices for those individuals with pending I-90s.

To evidence their lawful status, Lawful Permanent Residents may present the updated I-90 receipt notice with their expired green card. This will allow Lawful Permanent Residents to continue working and traveling, despite experiencing long processing delays to replace their expired green card.

If an individual no longer has their Green Card, they will need additional evidence of their lawful permanent resident status while waiting to receive a replacement green card.