An immigrant can switch his/her country of chargeability under a number of different conditions of which one is most often used. An immigrant can switch to the country of chargeability of his or her spouse.

For example, if a Mainland born Chinese whose spouse is from Taiwan, the applicant may be able to switch to the country visa quota for Taiwan and thereby circumvent the visa backup for China. Recently, this office represented an immigrant born in India but was married to an Indian woman born in Canada. We were able to switch his country of chargeability to Canada. Since the quota for Canada is not backup, we were able to promptly file the adjustment of status application for the applicant.

If an immigrant has obtained an earlier priority date for any employment-based visa petition, it may be possible to use this priority date for a second visa petition even when the petition is based on a higher-level of visa classification. (Higher level of visa classification has priority over lower level of visa classification).

For example, assuming an immigrant has an E-3 priority date from a labor certification for a programmer analyst position and later obtains the master's degree that can support a new labor certification at this level of education, the new visa petition based on the master's degree can claim the priority date of the old petition. Another important benefit is that the priority date stays with the immigrant even if he or she changes jobs. Generally, any employment-based priority date once properly established will stay with the immigrant for any other type of employment based petition.

Claiming either alternate chargeability or an earlier priority date can be rather tricky and it is recommended that the assistance of an experienced immigration attorney. It is the experience of this office that, on many occasions, the CIS Examiners do not understand these concepts and it is necessary to explain to them in detail how the system works.