The Department of State (DOS) Visa Bulletin for November 2009 shows a small amount of progress in the employment-based second preference (EB2) category for China-born individuals. For China, the EB2 priority date has moved to April 1, 2005 from March 22, 2005. For India-born individuals, there was no change to the EB2 priority date, remaining at January 22, 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) numbers for all countries other than India will be June 1, 2002 showing a slight movement forward for China and Mexico. EB3 India will move forward to April 22, 2001 from April 15, 2001.

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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