The Department of State (DOS) Visa Bulletin for April 2011 shows little progress in 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 two weeks, from July 8, 2006 to July 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 three weeks, from July 1, 2005 to July 22, 2005.  EB3 India moved forward three weeks from March 15, 2002 to April 8, 2002.  EB3 China moved forward over two months, from January 22, 2004 to March 1, 2004.  EB3 Mexico had the largest movement, from January 8, 2004 to May 8, 2004, a gain of three months.

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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