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In today’s blog post, we share some interesting Question and Answer responses recently provided by the Department of State’s Office of the Assistant Legal Adviser for Consular Affairs (L/CA), in a meeting with the American Immigration Lawyers Association (AILA).

The responses below provide some important insight into current immigration policies and procedures taking place amid the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic.

Here, we summarize the most interesting questions covered during the January 20 meeting:


Department of State/AILA Liaison Committee Meeting


January 20, 2022 Q & A Highlights


Q: What role do Consular sections assume when determining whether an individual is exempt from the CDC COVID-19 vaccine requirement to gain entry to the U.S.?

A: Consular sections’ role in the process is to ensure that an individual’s request for a [vaccine] exception is filled out in full, and to transmit those requests to the CDC.


Q: If consular posts are involved in transmitting information in support of a humanitarian exception to CDC, what is the process, if any, for making such a request of a consular post outside the context of a visa interview?

A: Travelers should contact the consular section of the nearest embassy or consulate using the information provided on that embassies or consulate’s website


Q: What is the Department of State doing to alleviate the substantial backlogs created by the slowdown of operations at Consular posts and Embassies worldwide?

A: The Department is planning to hire foreign service officers above attrition in FY 2022. The majority will be assigned to a consular position after initial training. Additionally, the Department continues to recruit Limited Non-career Appointment (LNA) Consular Professionals. With very limited LNA hiring in FY 2020 and a pause on LNA hiring in FY 2021 due to CA’s budgetary constraints, Consular Affairs plans to hire more than 60 LNAs in FY 2022

Consular Affairs is working with State’s office of Global Talent Management to ramp up hiring in FY 2022, but many posts will not see these new officers until the second half of FY 2022 or FY 2023, particularly for officers assigned to positions requiring language training. Increased hiring will not have an immediate effect on reducing current visa wait times. Because local pandemic restrictions continue to impact a significant number of our overseas posts, extra staff alone is not sufficient to combat wait times for interviews.


Q: Can Consular Affairs please advise regarding efforts to resume routine consular services?

A: Consular sections abroad must exercise prudence given COVID’s continuing unpredictability. The emergence of the Omicron variant has prompted countries to reevaluate plans to relax travel bans, thereby leading consular sections abroad to recalibrate plans to resume services. Some posts have already fully resumed routine services. Others, in an abundance of caution and out of concern for the health of both consular staff and clientele, are slowly reintroducing some routine services.

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In this post, we would like to keep our readers informed about Visa Bulletin projections for the coming months. Charles Oppenheim, Chief of the Visa Control and Reporting Division of the U.S. Department of State provides a monthly analysis of each month’s Visa Bulletin including discussion of current trends and future projections for immigrant preference categories.

Below are the highlights of those trends and projections for August 2019:

EB-1 Worldwide: As demand has increased in recent weeks, this category is expected to retrogress in early August, and return back to April 22, 2018 in October of this year.

EB-1 India: This category is not expected to advance prior to October 2019. During October 2019, this category is expected to return to a Final Action Date of February 22, 2017.

EB-1 China: This category is not expected to advance prior to October 2019.  

EB-2 Worldwide: Due to increased demand in recent weeks, this category is no longer expected to remain current through September 2019. A retrogression is expected in this category in early August 2019. EB-2 Worldwide is expected to become current again in October 2019.

EB-2 India: This category is expected to continue to advance slowly, by a few days or a week.

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Photo: JM Parrone

In this post, we would like to keep our readers informed about Visa Bulletin projections for the coming months. Charles Oppenheim, Chief of the Visa Control and Reporting Division of the U.S. Department of State provides a monthly analysis of each month’s Visa Bulletin including discussion of current trends and future projections for immigrant preference categories

Below are the highlights of those trends and projections for July 2019:

For Employment-Based Preference Filings:
You must use the Final Action Dates chart in the Department of State Visa Bulletin for July 2019.

Employment-Based Categories:

EB-1 Worldwide: Demand for this category remains steady. For the month of July EB-1 remains at April 22, 2018 and is not expected to become current in the foreseeable future. The Final Action Date will likely not change in July.

  • EB-1 India: No forward movement is expected in this category before October 2019. It is expected that this category will return to a Final Action Date of February 22, 2017 in October of this year.
  • EB-1 China: Has advanced to May 8, 2017 in the July visa bulletin.

EB-2 Worldwide: Current in July and will remain current through September 2019.

  • EB-2 India: Is expected to advance slowly during the month of July by a few days or one week at a time. Some forward movement may occur during the summer is there is lower EB-2 Worldwide demand.
  • EB-2 China: Has advanced to November 1, 2016 in the July visa bulletin. The category will continue to advance due to low demand.

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Exciting news for Filipino nurses. The EB-3 employment-based category will become current in July 2019 through the summer.

This means that if you have an approved PERM application that was filed by your employer, your employer may file Form I-140 Immigrant Petition for Alien Worker on your behalf. Please note that registered nurses and physical therapists are not required to go through the PERM process and may proceed straight to the I-140.

Since there will be no waiting period in July 2019 through the summer, EB-3 Filipino nurses will be able to apply for the I-140 straight away, and for their adjustment of status. Applicants who are outside of the United States, may apply for their immigrant visa at a U.S. Consulate/Embassy in their country of residence.

Important Steps

If your employer has not filed a PERM application for you, they should do so as soon as possible. The PERM requirement does not apply to registered nurses or physical therapists.

After the PERM application is approved, your employer must file Form I-140 Petition for Alien Worker on your behalf. Registered nurses and physical therapists do not need to file a PERM application, and their employers may proceed with the immigrant visa petition (I-140).

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