In welcome news, the Department of State (DOS) Visa Bulletin for September 2009 reflects more progress in employment-based second preference (EB2) for China-born and India-born individuals. For both India and China, the EB2 priority date has moved from October 1, 2003 to January 8, 2005. All countries other than India and China remain "current" in the EB2 category. Employment-based first preference (EB1) remains current for all countries as well. The employment-based third preference (EB3) category remains "unavailable" until October 2009 when the new fiscal year begins.

As with the August Visa Bulletin, DOS offered no explanation why EB2 India and China moved forward more than a year from the prior month's priority date. DOS also did not address what might be the priority dates in the EB1, EB2 and EB3 categories in the October Visa Bulletin.

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 since 1996.

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