On July 17, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services reversed its earlier decision to reject all Employment Based Adjustment of Status applications filed in July. Those applications were being filed on the basis of the Department of State’s July Visa Bulletin issued on June 12 which stated that those Visa Numbers would be current in July.

The chaos resulting from the earlier decision led to a public outcry, threats of litigation, and the potential for Congressional investigation of the agency.

The revised procedures now in effect are as follows:

Any applications received on or after July 2, 2007 will be accepted and processed.

USCIS will continue to accept Employment Based Adjustment of Status applications from applicants whose Priority Dates are current under the original July Visa Bulletin which provided that all Employment Based categories were “current” for all countries (with the exception of the “Other Worker” category for unskilled workers).

These applications will be accepted until August 17, 2007.

The current fee schedule will apply to applicants who file on the basis of the July Visa Bulletin on or before August 17, 2007. These applicants WILL NOT be subject to the substantial fee increase which is otherwise effective as of July 30, 2007.

As a reminder, applicants for Adjustment of Status must be physically present in the U.S. on the date of filing and must not depart from the U.S. before a receipt is issued for the I-485 Application. We expect that it will take several weeks or possibly longer for receipts to be issued.

We are in the process of contacting all of our clients who may be eligible to move forward with their Applications on the basis of this development.