NATIONAL VISA CENTER
TO BECOME MORE EFFICIENT
The National Visa Center (NVC) is an office belonging to the U.S. Department of State (DOS).
When the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS), which is an office belonging to the U. S. Department of Homeland Security, approves a VISA PETITION, the petition goes to the NVC. This is true for both FAMILY based and EMPLOYMENT based petition.
The function of the NVC is to prepare the paperwork and the supporting documents that every approved petition still requires, and then to schedule an interview for the beneficiaries of the petition at the proper American Consulate overseas.
Unfortunately, for whatever reasons, the NVC suffers great delays in its work. The inevitable result is a huge backlog, a mountain of approved petitions lying at the NVC (or hanging in its computers) waiting for processing and scheduling.
Naturally, the result of a backlog is INQUIRIES. Thousands of anxious petitioners (generally, American citizens and American employers), and thousands of worried beneficiaries (generally, non citizens in the U.S. and many other countries), are flooding the NVC with questions, complaints, requests for expedite, and some, bitter, nasty expressions.
The result? INEFFICIENCY. The staff of the NVC is kept busy responding (politely) to the inquiries, providing explanations (actually – excuses) for the delays. All very inefficient, and the backlog only gets bigger.
The solution? As of May 23, 2022, the NVC will deactivate its PUBLIC INQUIRY TELEPHONE LINE. NO TELEPHONE INQUIRIES for the sake of increased EFFICIENCY.
SPEED UP FOR SOME EMPLOYMENT-BASED PETITIONS
EMPLOYMENT-BASED PETITIONS (Form I-140) are filed with the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS). Most such I-140 petitions require an Application for Foreign Labor Certification (LC) to be approved by the U.S. Department of Labor (US DOL) before filing the I-140 petition. The DOL may take one year or more to process and approve an LC.
However, I-140 petitions in the E-1 category are exempt from the requirement to have an approved LC. A sub-category of that group is Multinational Executives and
Managers and they are classified as E13 petitions.
Another group of I-140 petitions exempt from the requirement to have an approved LC are beneficiaries with ADVANCED DEGREES or EXCEPTIONAL ABILITY in their fields of occupation who seek a NATIONAL INTEREST WAIVER (NIW) for their I-140 petition. They are classified in the EB2 (NIW) category.
USCIS announced that they will begin to accept requests for PREMIUM PROCESSING (actually – EXPEDITE) for such petitions that