POST BY RONALD PAYNE - As many already know, the President signed the Emergency Afghan Allies Extension Act of 2014 (Senate Bill 2624 - House Resolution 5195) into LAW (Public Law 113-160). This LAW does two things of particular importance: 1. It extends the date to submit a COM Application Packet to 31 December 2014. 2. It authorizes an additional 1000 Visa Allocations. Now I want to comment on these two provisions for just a minute... First, I continue to recommend that anyone who has had their COMA Revoked and their case number was a 2013 or earlier year group, they should (1) submit a NEW COM Application Packet, AND (2) submit an Appeal/Petition for Reconsideration within 120 days of the Date stated on the Revocation Notice if at all possible. Second, anyone who does not have an active case being processed AND has NOT filed a Year Group 2014 COM Application Packet SHOULD submit a COM Application Packet. The Year Group of a COM SIV Case is determined by the first four numbers after the NVCSIV... For example: NVCSIV2010123456 would signify a 2010 Case Number. Another example: NVCSIV2014123456 would signify a 2014 Case Number. Case Numbers in the Year Group 2014 that are Denied or Revoked under current law have their only relief to be found in an Appeal/Petition for Reconsideration. Third, in regards to my recommended date for submitting a New or Subsequent COM Application Packet is now changing from 01 to 15 September 2014 to 01 to 15 December 2014 (however, I am NOT opposed to the submission of a COM Application Packet based upon my previous suggested date for submitting a COM Application Packet). My intention is that the SIVA should focus their time and efforts on submitting the highest quality COM Application Packet rather than rushing to submit any (and possibly a low quality) COM Application Packet and risk a Denial based upon the submission of an inadequate/defective COM Application Packet. Fourth, I have very little to no concern that any SIVA will be actually denied a VISA because of a lack of Visa Allocations. I have full confidence that Congress, just like it just did, will increase the authorized visa allocations when it is found that there are more qualified SIVA than there are at that time authorized visa allocations. Historically, there still has not been one single SIVA denied a SIV Visa based upon a lack of an authorized visa allocation (the only exception to this is the 1059 Petition SIV Program - General Officer SIV Program with 50 visa allocations per year.) We are currently working with Congress to increase this visa allocation so that 1059 Cases may be processed in a more reasonable manner. However, there are many in Congress who have stated that the remedy for the long wait time and limited visa allocations for 1059 Cases is to submit a COM Application Packet. Fifth, as above-mentioned, anyone who has a 1059 Case and is waiting for a Visa Allocation should submit a COM Application Packet (a SIVA is authorized to have both 1059 and COM SIVP Cases at the same time).
Posted on: Fri, 15 Aug 2014 02:27:35 +0000
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