Charles Oppenheimer, Chief of the Immigrant Visa Control and Reporting Division of the State Department has reconfirmed that there is not expected to be a retrogression in employment-based visa numbers in 2003 and 2004. If Mr. Oppenheimer's expectation is met, this news means that the distinction between EB2 and EB3 workers will continue to be functionally meaningless. This is also good news for for the burgeoning flow of immigrants with nursing backgrounds since there is no expectation of backlogs in these immigrant categories. A backlog might have meant added delays to the already-lengthy nurse immigration process.

This was a reconfirmation of a prior announcement in November 2002, which Hammond Law Group's Immigration Alerts first reported at:
http://www.hammondlawfirm.com/host/Publications/News_Updates/11.06.2002%20CTM.htm