The Department of State (DOS) Visa Bulletin for January 2008 indicates that visa numbers will again significantly retrogress for EB-2 employment-based immigrant applications for India-born individuals. Effective January 1, 2008, the priority date for the EB-2 India category will move back two years to January 1, 2000. In December 2007, the priority date for this category retrogressed more than two years to its current date of January 1, 2002. The priority date for EB-2 India is now more backlogged than the EB-3 India category, which remains unchanged at May 1, 2001.

DOS advises in the January Visa Bulletin that retrogression of India EB-2 numbers was necessary because of "heavy applicant demand for numbers by USCIS for adjustment of status cases despite the retrogression that occurred for December." DOS also notes that it anticipates the annual limit for India EB-2 applicants will be reached within the next few months, at which point the category will become "unavailable" for the remainder of fiscal year 2008.

The other categories in the Visa Bulletin mostly unchanged from December 2007. In the EB-3 category, for all countries other than China, India, and Mexico, the priority date moved forward approximately 6 weeks to October 15, 2002. EB-3 China moved forward one month to November 1, 2001. All other categories remain unchanged.

It is important to note that "nationality" is not the same as citizenship. Generally, DOS looks at the country of birth in determining whether a person is a national of a given country. As a result, persons who become citizens of other countries (i.e., Indians who become Canadian citizens) are still considered nationals of their birth country for immigrant visa purposes.

Visa retrogression immediately impacts only those individuals in the final stages of the permanent resident process (i.e., those seeking to file an application for adjustment of status (AOS), who are waiting for an AOS application to be adjudicated, or who are seeking to apply for an immigrant visa at a U.S. Consulate or Embassy based on an approved immigrant visa petition). Visa retrogression has no impact on the processing of a labor certification that is about to be filed or is pending with the Department of Labor. Furthermore, visa retrogression does not prohibit the filing of an immigrant visa petition (I-140) based on an approved labor certification, even if that immigrant visa petition will be filed under the EB-2 category.

For general information on visa retrogression, please see our FAQ on this subject. For more information on the Visa Bulletin and country quota movements, including information about movement in the Family-Based Quotas, please see our DOS Visa Bulletin and Quota Movement page which includes detailed nationality-specific charts of quota movement for the past decade.

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