On September 28, 2015, a class action lawsuit was filed against the U.S. Department of State (DOS) and U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) over last minute changes to the Visa Bulletin for October 2015.
In Mehta v. DOS, plaintiffs have asked the court to strike down the revised September 25, 2015 Visa Bulletin and to compel USCIS to accept I-485 adjustment of status applications based on the original September 9, 2015 Visa Bulletin. The lawsuit states:
This case is about what happens when thousands of law-abiding, highly skilled immigrants spend millions of dollars preparing to apply for green cards in reasonable reliance on an agency’s binding policy statement, only to find out at the last minute that a hapless federal bureaucracy has abruptly, inexplicably, and arbitrarily reneged on its promise.
The table below shows the “Dates of Filing” affected by the revised Visa Bulletin for October 2015.
| CATEGORY | ORIGINAL FILING DATE (SEP 9, 2015) |
NEW FILING DATE (SEP 25, 2015) |
DIFFERENCE |
| EB-2 China | 1 MAY 2014 | 1 JAN 2013 | 1 year, 5 months |
| EB-2 India | 1 JUL 2011 | 1 JUL 2009 | 2 years |
| EB-3 Philippines | 1 JAN 2015 | 1 JAN 2010 | 5 years |
| FB-1 Mexico | 1 JUL 1995 | 1 APR 1995 | 3 months |
| FB-3 Mexico | 1 OCT 1996 | 1 MAY 1995 | 1 year, 5 months |
