The U.S. Department of State (DOS) has released the November 2005 Visa Bulletin with no change to any of the employment-based priority dates.  Visa numbers remain retrogressed for both Indian and Chinese nationals in all three employment-based (EB) categories (i.e., EB-1, EB-2, and EB-3).  In addition, EB-3 numbers remain retrogressed for all nationalities.  For more information on visa retrogression in general, please refer to the Visa Retrogression FAQ on our website.  The DOS has indicated in the Bulletin that it will release more information about the employment preference visa availability on Friday.  Please check our website for updates as we learn more.

DOS representatives, in a conversation with an AILA member, provided some insight into projections for the next few months. In coming up with these projections, the DOS reviewed information provided by each CIS Service Center with regards to cases that they have pending divided by employment-based classification, priority date, country of birth and date of submission. This information was used to determine the current "demand" for visas. Based on this analysis, DOS projects  that there will continue to be cut offs for persons born in China and India in the EB-1 and EB-2 category with only slight forward movement, perhaps in January or February 2006. Worldwide EB-2 (not including China and India) may see a cut off as early as January 2006. Worldwide cutoffs for EB-1 will likely not occur until mid to late 2006, if at all. DOS also projects that there may be some slight forward movement in the EB-3 worldwide visa numbers, including those for India and China in 2006.

DOS has indicated that their goal is to avoid, if possible, any backward movement in categories for which there are already cut-offs.

Please refer to previous news items and our newsletter, Immigration Spotlight, for more information on the quota bulletin.

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