The Department of State (DOS) Visa Bulletin for September 2008 indicates that employment-based second preference (EB-2) for India-born and China-born individuals will advance to August 1, 2006, moving forward two months from the August Visa Bulletin cut-off dates.

There were no changes in any other employment-based category on the August Visa Bulletin. EB-1 remains current for all countries, and EB-2 is current for all countries other than India and China, which have moved to August 1, 2006. EB-3 continues to be unavailable for all countries.

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.

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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