On July 28, 2023, Congressmen Raja Krishnamoorthi (D-Illinois) and Larry Bucshon, M.D. (R-Indianna) led 56 of their colleagues in sending a letter to Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Department of Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas requesting the Biden administration take executive action to provide relief to highly skilled immigrant workers by advancing all the USDOS Visa Bulletin employment-based categories “Dates for Filing” to “Current”, and allowing employment-based applicants to file their I-485 applications for U.S. permanent residence based on the “Dates for Filing” charts. Since then, there has been much speculation regarding whether the Biden administration will entertain such administrative action. To date there has been no official response from the administration indicating that it intends to take such administrative action and if so, when. We will know if such action will be taken in October 2023 by mid-September when the USDOS issues the Visa Bulletin for October 2023. Given that the administration hasn’t already enacted this type of administrative relief for highly skilled workers, and USCIS is still mulling over proposed filing fee increases that would raise filing fees, decouple the I-485 Adjustment of Status filing fee from the I-765 Employment Authorization and I-131 Advance Parole filing fees, and enact a new filing fee for I-765 and I-131 renewals, we do not believe it is likely that the Biden administration will take such action starting in October 2023. If the Biden administration is considering taking such executive action, we believe it will be in conjunction with the implementation of the new filing fee rule. Thus, we do not believe that all employment-based preference categories will become “Current” in October 2023. However, we hope that there is a significant advancement in the employment-based preference categories in October 2023 which will allow those whose categories recently backlogged to move forward with their I-485 applications. Stay tuned! Mid-September is right around the corner!