Shall Chinese and Indian EB-2 Applicants Have to Wait 9 Years for a Green Card?
Joe Jian Zhou, Attorney at Law On June 9th the Department of State (DOS) announced the Visa Bulletin for July 2009. The new cut-off date for China-born EB-2 applicants was set back to January 1st, 2000, joining India born EB-2 applicants in a wave of significant retrogression. This is a great shock to Chinese EB-2 applicants, and many EB-2 applicants are in a state of panic, hopelessness, and disappointment. Does the newly announced cut-off date really mean that a China-born EB-2 applicant has to wait for more than 9 years before receiving a green card? Fortunately, this 9 year wait time is unlikely; we are confident that we will see significant forward movement of the EB-2 category cut-off date for China and India in the October 2009 Visa Bulletin. As many employment-based immigration applicants are familiar with, DOS sets visa number cut-off dates every month for each category. The visa number cut-off date determines whether an immigration visa is available to an applicant within a s
