Current Visa Bulletin F2B Chart A or Chart B?

[KevinNelson]

Shusterman's immigration bulletin that came in today stated, "For the month of November 2019, the USCIS announced that they would let applicants file for Adjustment of Status using the Filing Dates Charts rather that the Final Action Dates Charts. Stay tuned for USCIS’s announcement for December." https://www.shusterman.com/statedepartmentvisabulletin/

 

My step-son is in China. My wife has always maintained that because he is not in the United States, chart A applies. This notice from Shusterman seems to imply that chart B may apply.

 

Current visa bulletin link: https://travel.state.gov/content/travel/en/legal/visa-law0/visa-bulletin.html

 

I like chart B better... but it will put more stress on us getting ready to have him here potentially six months earlier.

 

What is your take?

[Randy W]

The wording in the Shusterman page seems to simply be a carryover from when it was split up into two tables.

 

You can file according to Table B. The visa numbers become available - i.e., action taken - according to Table A.

 

Filing "early" in that way allows them to process the application beforehand - before his visa number is available, but so that it may be awarded when the time comes.

[newacct]

Each month USCIS chooses one of the two charts as the chart to use for determining which cases can file Adjustment of Status (I-485) in the US during that month, and posts it here. Sometimes they choose the Final Action Date chart, and sometimes they choose the Date for Filing chart. That's what the thing you quoted is talking about.

 

Since your stepson is not in the US, he will be doing Consular Processing abroad, not Adjustment of Status. So the discussion above does not concern his case. For Consular Processing, NVC and the consulate should start processing the case around when the Date for Filing chart passes his priority date, but the process is not initiated by you and you have no control over it.

 

For both Adjustment of Status and Consular Processing, the final approval cannot occur before a month when the FInal Action Date passes his priority date.

[KevinNelson]

The wording in the Shusterman page seems to simply be a carryover from when it was split up into two tables.

 

You can file according to Table B. The visa numbers become available - i.e., action taken - according to Table A.

 

Filing "early" in that way allows them to process the application beforehand - before his visa number is available, but so that it may be awarded when the time comes.

 

So are we supposed to get a letter from the USCIS sometime soon after the date on Table B stating what documents are needed before the decision date?

[Randy W]

The DATES FOR FILING FAMILY-SPONSORED VISA APPLICATIONS shows 01DEC06. "Applicants for immigrant visas who have a priority date earlier than the application date in the chart below may assemble and submit required documents to the Department of State’s National Visa Center, following receipt of notification from the National Visa Center containing detailed instructions."

 

 

[KevinNelson]

Table B proved to be the correct one. We just received notice my step-son's application was accepted!