The Department of State (DOS) Visa Bulletin for July 2010 showed the first significant progress in the employment-based second preference (EB2) category for India-born individuals in some months. For India, the EB2 priority date moved forward nine months, from February 1, 2005 to October 1, 2005. For China-born individuals, EB2 remains unchanged at November 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.
The employment-based third preference (EB3) numbers for all countries other than India and Mexico have moved forward almost two months, from June 22, 2003 to August 15, 2003. EB3 India moved forward one month from October 22, 2001 to November 22, 2001. EB3 Mexico remains “unavailable.”
In addition to the July Visa numbers, the Visa Bulletin includes the following projections about employment-based visa availability for the remainder of FY2010.
Current
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China and India: March or April 2006
All countries other than China and India: Current
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| Worldwide: |
June through September 2004 |
| China: |
October through December 2003 |
| India: |
February 2002 |
| Mexico: |
Unavailable |
| Philippines: |
June through September 2004 |
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Please note that these are only estimates, and it is possible that annual limits could be reached or visa numbers could retrogress before the end of the fiscal year.
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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