The Department of State (DOS) Visa Bulletin for August 2010 showed significant progress in the employment-based second preference (EB2) category for both India-born and China-born individuals. For India, the EB2 priority date moved forward five months, from October 1, 2005 to March 1, 2006. For China-born individuals, EB2 advanced from November 22, 2005 to March 1, 2006. All countries other than India and China remain "current" in the EB2 category. Employment-based first preference (EB1) also remains current for all countries.
In addition, the employment-based third preference (EB3) numbers for all countries other than India, China and Mexico have moved forward almost ten months, from August 15, 2003 to June 1, 2004. EB3 India moved forward from November 22, 2001 to January 1, 2002. EB3 China moved forward from August 15, 2003 to September 22, 2003. EB3 Mexico remains “unavailable.”
This forward progress is largely consistent with the projections for FY2010 employment-based visa cutoff dates that DOS made in the July Visa Bulletin. While we may see further advancement in some of these dates in September, this will depend on global demand and usage of the available visa numbers.
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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