I got this message from my lawyer in this morning: The Department of State this morning issued a revised Visa Bulletin that states effective immediately, ALL immigrant visa numbers in ALL of the employment-based preference categories will be unavailable for the balance of the current fiscal year, or until October 1, 2007. Given that the availability of an immigrant visa number is required to file or approve an adjustment of status application, this means that unless the State Department issues an amended Bulletin, IT WILL NOT BE POSSIBLE TO FILE ANY EMPLOYMENT-BASED ADJUSTMENT OF STATUS APPLICATION UNTIL THE NEXT FEDERAL FISCAL YEAR WHICH BEGINS ON October 1, 2007. Even once we meet this October date, the Department of State will quite likely impose cut-off dates in the employment-based worldwide quota as well as quotas for the traditionally oversubscribed countries of India and China, thereby making it at present impossible to predict when new adjustment of status applications can be filed. Owing to the unfolding and unprecedented nature of this announcement, we do not know how U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) will handle adjustment of status applications that are received today, which is the first day that an adjustment application could be received for processing under the July announcement. Our own office filed over 40 adjustment applications for delivery today and we have over 50 additional such applications in process which we had intended to file within the next few days. Unless we receive any notification to the contrary, we cannot file any new adjustment of status applications for the balance of this fiscal year, or until October 1, 2007. I anticipate sending out to you a follow-up e-mail on how USCIS intends to treat adjustment applications that were filed today as there is still some hope that these applications will be accepted for processing by USCIS. The State Department's revision of its previous announcement of visa number availability is the result of a spurt in adjustment processing (estimated at around 60,000 new adjustment adjudications) by USCIS over the past few days that has used up the remaining allotment of immigrant visa numbers during this fiscal year. Frankly, the timing of these events is suspect given that USCIS has held without final decisions literally thousands of adjustment applications for months and sometimes even years. I find it strange that this federal agency has suddenly processed cases in a manner that would effectively reverse a previously announced opportunity for thousands of foreign nationals, disproportionately from India and China, to file their applications in July. At present, my professional association is considering legal action to compel a more considered policy - including advance notification of any such sudden swings in filing policy - and frankly, I would hope that various Congressional and other oversight bodies would also become involved. While the United States maintains quotas on employment-based immigration levels, it is absolutely intolerable for federal agencies to act in such an imperious manner so as to disrupt the legitimate expectations of foreign nationals and their employers.