Department of State (DOS) Visa Bulletin for October 2011 shows continued progress in the employment-based (EB) categories with significant progress for India EB2 and China EB2.  For both China-born and India-born individuals, the EB2 priority date moved forward three months, from April 15, 2007 to July 15, 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) dates for all countries also advanced.  EB3 India moved forward from July 08, 2002 to July 15, 2002.  EB3 China moved forward from July 15, 2004 to August 08, 2004.  All other EB3 chargeability areas, including Mexico and Philippines, advanced from November 22, 2005 to December 08, 2005.

The significant advancement of the China and India EB2 numbers is welcome news in the immigration community, however, the October Visa Bulletin also includes a warning from DOS that this continued progress may not be sustained or may even retrogress: “The current cut-off date is approaching the most favorable date previously reached for applicants from China and India. The rapid forward movement is intended to generate demand based on new filings for adjustment of status at U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services offices, which currently accounts for over 85% of all Employment-based number use. Once the level of demand increases sufficiently, it may be necessary to slow or stop the cut-off movement, and a retrogression of the cut-offs at some point during the year is a distinct possibility.”

From a practical perspective, this means that persons in the India and China EB2 category who will become “current” in October 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 November, should priority dates retrogress or become unavailable.

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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