The priority date on an immigrant or non-immigrant petition is conveyed as the date when the petition was properly filed with United States Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS). The priority date on a petition is only a concern for preference petitions, as it determines the beneficiary’s place in the visa queue. Priority dates are not a concern for immediate relative petitions, as a visa is readily available for the beneficiary in those cases.
Priority dates play a significant role in the issuance of visas, as the Department of State has placed limits on the number of visas that are dispersed annually. For Family-Based Preference Petitions, those filed on Form I-130, only 226,000 are available annually, and for Employment-Based Preference Petitions, those filed on Form I-140, only 140,000 visas are issued annually. Thus, the Department of State issues visa depending on the Preference Category of the Petition, and the priority date.
The priority date is essential for determining when the beneficiary of an immigrant petition will be able to join their family member(s) in the U.S. It is only when the priority date becomes current that the beneficiary will be able to apply for a visa. Because some preference categories suffer from long backlogs, changes may occur such as the petitioner naturalizing, or the beneficiary aging out, or marrying. When this occurs, certain petitions will automatically convert to a different preference category. Where concern may arise is regarding whether the original priority will be retained. In certain situations, the original priority date maybe retained and the beneficiary will not lose his/her place in the visa queue, and there is also the situation where it is beneficial to preserve the original preference category. The law office of Dhade & Associates assists with these types of cases.
If you are a petitioner of an I-130 petition, and there has been a change in your immigration status or a change in the beneficiary’s status, schedule a consult with our office to determine how this change will affect your immigrant petition, and whether or not your priority date or preference category may be retained.
