On June 12, the State Department encouraged highly skilled immigrants here on temporary employment visas to apply for permanent employment visas, known as green cards, to become permanent residents. The department said the visas would be available starting July 2. But on that date, the department announced that all available employment-based visas had been distributed for the year.

In July 2007, the American Law Foundation (AILF) prepared a lawsuit to file in the Northern District of Illinois challenging the change in policy. The complaint was, however never filed. Instead, on July 17 (the very day the lawsuit was to be initiated), the federal government announced, as the lawsuit was about to demand, that it was reversing course and accepting the green card applications, if they were filed by August 17.

Margo Schlanger - 07/18/2007


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