Today, USCIS issued a statement again urging eligible applicants with a pending green card application in the EB-3 category to consider transferring their application to EB-2, citing the “exceptionally high number of employment-based immigrant visas available in these categories during this fiscal year,” which ends in September 2022. This follows the statement issued by USCIS last month, which outlined a new interfiling process to facilitate these kinds of transfers. You can read more about this process on the USCIS webpage for employment-based green cards, under “Transfer of Underlying Basis.” To be eligible for an EB-3 to EB-2 transfer, an applicant must have an approved I-140 in the EB-2 preference category.

The USCIS statement explains that the overall employment-based annual limit for the fiscal year 2022 is “approximately twice as high as usual.” This is because that limit includes all unused family-sponsored visa numbers from the fiscal year 2021, which was approximately 140,000. These visas cannot be made available to the EB-3 category, as it is required by statute that they are used in the EB-2 category. As such, USCIS is encouraging eligible applicants to take advantage of the high visa numbers available for EB-2 this year by using the interfiling process to transfer preference categories.

If you have a green card application currently pending under EB-3 and believe you may be eligible to transfer your application to the EB-2 category, please reach out to an ImmigrationUSA attorney today. We can guide you in the interfiling process to get you the results you need.