RETROGRESSION - July visa bulletin update!

The Department of State was forced to retract the first announcement due to the unprecedented use of about 60,000 employment visa numbers even before the update took effect. The visa limit for the fiscal year 2007 has been made available for the employment based category, and will open again in October for the fiscal year 2008.

Since the visa numbers were allocated and made available in July for the fiscal year 2007, it is advised that anyone who is scheduled for a consular interview this month should go. It was confirmed that those who got an appointment interviews for this month will have their visas available for them.

It is still not very clear as to whether the USCIS will return the previously filed applications in response to the July Visa Bulletin posted in June. However, there is a big chance that once the application is received within the first week of July that it will not be returned. Despite the Department of State’s announcement of the July Visa Bulletin Revision, the posted update for July made in June remained unchanged. The DOS only wants to inform the public that however the visa priority dates are current and available, that they can no longer authorize further applications made after July 2nd. This is hopefully a step in resolving the retrogression starting the fiscal year 2008.