Visa Bulletin

The December 2018 Visa Bulletin brings some welcome changes—a three month advancement across the EB-1 categories; the EB-2 China Final Action Date again surpassing EB-3 China; the gap between EB-2 India and EB-3 India narrowing to one month; EB-4 El Salvador, Guatemala and Honduras advancing one week; EB-4 Mexico advancing five weeks; and EB-5 China advancing one week, while EB-5 Vietnam advances three months.
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DOS provides the following in response to recent inquiries regarding visa availability for the EB-1, EB-2, EB-3, and Third "Other Workers" (EW) preference categories.
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Family-Based Preference Categories

As noted in the August 2018 Visa Bulletin, the final action dates for FB-3 India and/or FB-4 India were originally expected to retrogress in September. According to the latest information from the NVC regarding documentarily qualified demand,
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Employment-Based Preference Categories

EB-1 China and EB-1 India remain steady at January 1, 2012, and DOS anticipates this date will hold for the remainder of the fiscal year. It is hoped that these categories will become current again on October 1, 2018,
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Under the assumption that it takes roughly five months for I-485s to be processed to completion, it is not surprising that there were several dramatic final action date advancements in the April Visa Bulletin.

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Employment-based Categories

Why do the April Visa Bulletin final action date changes in the employment-based preference categories seem more dramatic than usual?

The advancements and retrogressions in final action dates in certain employment-based preference categories are attributable to several factors. First, in terms of timing, the advancement of certain categories is intended to spur sufficient demand early enough in the fiscal year to maximize number use by September 30th, 2018.
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Employment-Based Preference Categories

EB-4 Religious Workers and EB-5 Regional Center Categories "Unavailable. Congressional reauthorization for the EB-4 Certain Religious Workers (SR) and EB-5 Regional Center (I5 and R5) categories happened on December 22, 2017. Given legislative action for these categories, EB-4 (SR) final action dates are current, except EB-4 El Salvador,
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Employment-Based Preference Categories

Though discussions with USCIS and the CIS Ombudsman regarding employment-based adjustment interviews are ongoing, DOS does not believe that the impact of this policy change will manifest until well into the second half of the fiscal year due to the large number of pending
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Employment-Based Preference Categories

EB-1 China, EB-1 India, and EB-2 and EB-3 Worldwide. As previously reported, all of these categories are expected to remain current for the foreseeable future.

EB-2 India. Consistent with DOS's predictions, EB-2 India will advance by less than one month for November to October 8, 2008.
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The October 2017 Visa Bulletin contains predictions for final action date movement in the various categories for the upcoming fiscal year. These predictions are what DOS anticipates through January. Updated predictions will be published at that time. The Application Filing Dates which are included in the Bulletin represent how far DOS expects the final action dates in each category to advance by the end of the fiscal year.
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As the September Visa Bulletin sets forth the final action dates for the last month of Fiscal Year (FY) 2017, the U.S. Department of State (DOS) makes some predictions in final action date movement in October and during FY 2018.
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