On Friday, January 21, USCIS announced that the agency had received fewer adjustment of status applications in the first (priority workers) and second (workers with advanced degrees or of exceptional ability) employment-based categories than visas available. USCIS announced that the agency is committed to ensuring the full processing of all available immigrant visa numbers for the 2022 fiscal year and is encouraging adjustment applicants to consider applying in the first or second employment categories if eligible.
If an adjustment of status applicant has a pending third employment-based preference category but also has a pending or approved petition and an available visa in the second employment-based preference category, an applicant can request that USCIS “transfer the underlying basis” of the pending application to the second employment-based preference category.
For Fiscal Year 2022, USCIS has created a new point of contact that should be used to request a transfer of the underlying basis of employment-based Form I-485s. Through September 30, 2022, an applicant may submit a written request, with a completed I-485 Supplement J, Confirmation of Bona Fide Job Offer or Request for Job Portability Under INA Section 204(j) (if required), to the following address:
U.S. Department of Homeland Security
USCIS Western Forms Center
10 Application Way
Montclair, CA 91763-1350
This office will process transfer requests. However, if an applicant already submitted a transfer of underlying basis request to a USCIS office, they should not submit a new request to this address. All requests to transfer the underlying basis already received or that will be received this fiscal year at a USCIS office will be processed as usual by the USCIS office with jurisdiction over the applicant’s pending Form I-485.