really donot know how the USCIS process the GC case, a friend who filed his I-140 and I-485 in Sept 2005 at TX (since the cut off time was coming), and just check his case found his I-485was approved, his I-140 was approved in Oct 2005. he could not believe his eyes, ask me to further approve it, the result was his case was approved on Jan 19 2006, so we really donot know how this going to happened, and some filed theirs even one year early still pending, but share this news with others, we at least know that USCIS process our case no matther where you were born. good luck to everyone! by the way, this postdoc can hardly speak english, but his japanese was very well, his background is ok, i mean PhD with several papers.