The Department of State (DOS) Visa Bulletin for February 2011 shows little progress in any of the employment-based (EB) categories. In the employment-based second preference (EB2) category for India-born and China-born individuals, there was little to no movement. For China-born individuals, the EB2 priority date moved forward only 10 days, from June 22, 2006 to July 1, 2006. India EB-2 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.

We would note that the website for the U.S. Consulate in Mumbai, India posted an erroneous version of the February Visa Bulletin, which stated that EB-2 India was current. This is not correct, and the EB-2 India cutoff date for February remains at May 8, 2006.

The employment-based third preference (EB3) numbers for all countries other than India, China and Mexico moved forward two weeks, from March 22, 2005 to April 1, 2005. EB3 India moved forward three weeks from February 1, 2002 to February 22, 2002. EB3 China moved forward two weeks from December 15, 2003 to January 1, 2004. EB3 Mexico has moved from April 15, 2003 to July 8, 2003.

It is important to note that "nationality" for immigrant visa allotment 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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