The Department of State (DOS) Visa Bulletin for July 2011 shows continued progress in the employment-based (EB) categories for India and China.  In the employment-based second preference (EB2) category for India-born and China-born individuals, there was significant forward movement.  For both India-born and China-born individuals, the EB2 priority date moved forward almost five months, from October 15, 2006 to March 8, 2007.  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 saw limited advancement, moving from September 15, 2005 to October 8, 2005. EB3 India moved forward just over a week, from April 22, 2002 to May 1, 2002.  EB3 China moved forward six weeks, from May 15, 2004 to July 1, 2004.  EB3 Mexico moved from December 22, 2004 to July 1, 2005, a gain of more than six months.

The continued advancement of the China and India EB2 numbers is due to reallocation of “otherwise unused” visa numbers from the EB1 and EB2 categories.  However, DOS previously warned in the June Visa Bulletin that this progress may not be sustained for the rest of the fiscal year: “Should there be a sudden or significant increase in India and China Employment Second preference demand it may be necessary to slow, stop, or retrogress that cut-off date as we approach the end of fiscal year 2011.”

From a practical perspective, this means that persons in the India and China EB2 who will become “current” in July 2011 should ensure that they file their Adjustment of Status (AOS) applications during that month, as it is possible they will not be able to file their AOS applications in August, should priority dates retrogress or become unavailable.  Jackson & Hertogs is currently running a report to identify clients (and their dependent family members) who may be able benefit from the progress in the priority dates.  We run this report each month after the Visa Bulletin is published.

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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