The Department of State (DOS)  Visa Bulletin for March 2010 shows a small amount of progress in the employment-based second preference (EB2) category for China-born and India-born individuals. For China, the EB2 priority date moved to July 8, 2005 from May 22, 2005. For India-born individuals, EB2 moved from January 22, 2005 to February 1, 2005, less than two weeks of forward progress. All countries other than India and China remain "current" in the EB2 category. Employment-based first preference (EB1) remains current for all countries.

The employment-based third preference (EB3) numbers for all countries other than India and Mexico has moved forward to December 15, 2002 from September 22, 2002. EB3 Mexico remains unchanged at July 1, 2002. EB3 India will move forward from June 22, 2001 to July 1, 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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