CIR: Comprehensive Immigration Reform 意味著什麽？

CIR: What does it mean for you?
With the increasing likelihood of the passage of Comprehensive Immigration Reform (CIR) legislation, it is important for foreign nationals in the United States to take a moment and reflect on how this might affect them and what they can do to position themselves to deal with it.

There are two aspects of CIR that we must consider: What changes are coming in the law; and, what will be the likely effect of these changes?

Other articles in this issue deal more specifically with likely changes. For purposes of this article, we are going to examine the most likely changes and how these changes will impact applicants in the larger sense.

Quota relief is almost certainly going to be included in any version of CIR that gets enacted into law. We can reasonably expect to see substantial increases in both the family based and employment based quotas. This will take the form of recapture of visa numbers lost in previous years due to INS/CIS incompetence as well as substantial increases in the annual overall quota numbers.

Putting aside the likely changes in the selection system that will also be enacted, a substantial increase in the family and employment based quotas will mean that hundreds of thousands of pending cases will suddenly become “current.” That is, visa numbers under the quota will become available for them. For many, this will mean that their pending applications will become eligible to be approved. For others, it will mean that they will have the opportunity to file green card applications.

While this is a welcome development, we need to stop and consider what this means for CIS processing. Right now, the CIS has around a half million employment based AOS cases on file. They acknowledge a “backlog” of more than 220,000 (where they define the “backlog” as consisting of cases with current priority dates, all background checks completed and I-140s approved, that have been pending unadjudicated for more than eight months). If all priority dates become “current” then we can expect an immediate influx of between 300,000 and 500,000 new filings. The CIS simply isn’t prepared to deal with that volume of pending files.

This will be an unintended consequence of CIR. Not only will the expanded quotas result in additional filings, but if there is a legalization (amnesty) component, CIS resources will be stretched beyond the breaking point.

One thing that applicants can consider is making alternative plans to pursue overseas consular processing. The overseas consulates have the processing capability to handle almost any volume that is thrown at them. If the choice is the inconvenience of a trip abroad, with the assurance of swift processing, verses the uncertainty of CIS processing, there is really no choice. That decision is simple。

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