Tomorrow is October 1, 2015, the first day of fiscal year 2016. The government will release the 10,000 U visas available per year on that one day and will finally approve that number of cases over the next couple of months. This will still leave a long wait list because many more cases remain pending and the congressionally mandated limit.
What if you’re on the wait list? The immigration service adjudicates U visa cases even if a cap number is not immediately available. They take a long time to do this, 12-16 months. But once the immigration service pre-approves a case, the applicant and derivative family members are placed in deferred action status. Deferred action is the same thing that DACA confers. It is not exactly an immigration status, but it is protection from deportation, and people who demonstrate need can also obtain work permits while in deferred action. With the work permit, issued for two years at a time, people with pre-approved work permits can live normal lives, get driver’s licenses and social security numbers, travel within the United States, and breathe freely.
Calculating your place on the wait list: Approximately 25,000 people apply for U-1 visas each year. This does not include derivative family members, who are not counted against the cap. The immigration service is adjudicating U visa cases on a first in, first out basis. This means the date that counts is the receipt date, not the pre-approval date.
As of June 30, 2015, there were 56,440 U-1 petitions pending. This is according to data released by the immigration service at the end of the third quarter of fiscal year 2015. If we estimate that another 7,000 people applied during the fourth quarter, the total number right now is likely 63,500. Some percentage of applications will likely be denied – let’s say 25 percent as an estimate. So that leaves us with roughly 47,625 on the wait list. The first 10,000 from this number will be approved over the next two months. Thus, we will likely see final approvals for U visa applicants whose cases were filed before December 2013.
What does the waitlist look like in the future: For cases we are filing now, the wait list will probably stretch to four or more years. Hopefully the U visa cap set by Congress will be increased. Another possible fix, not in place right now, but one we would encourage, is for time spent on the wait list to count towards the three years a U visa holder must accumulate to be able to apply for permanent residence.