In a welcome surprise, the Department of State (DOS) Visa Bulletin for October 2010 showed no new retrogression in any employment-based (EB) category. In the employment-based second preference (EB2) category for India-born and China-born individuals, there was little movement. For China-born individuals, the EB2 priority date moved forward two weeks, from May 8, 2006 to May 22, 2006. India EB2 remains unchanged at May 8, 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.
The employment-based third preference (EB3) numbers for all countries other than India, China and Mexico moved forward less than a month, from December 15, 2004 to January 8, 2005. EB3 India moved forward two weeks from January 1, 2002 to January 15, 2002. EB3 China moved forward two weeks from October 22, 2003 to November 8, 2003. EB3 Mexico has changed from "unavailable" to April 22, 2001.
It is important to note that "nationality" for immigrant visa allotment is not the same as country of 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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