The Department of State (DOS) Visa Bulletin for March 2012 shows a continued forward advancement in the employment-based second preference (EB2) category for India-born and China-born individuals of four months.    For both China-born and India-born individuals, the EB2 priority date moved forward from January 1, 2010 to May 1, 2010.  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 made a slight forward movement from February 22, 2006 to March 15, 2006.  EB3 India moved forward from August 15, 2002 to August 22, 2002.  EB3 China moved from December 1, 2004 to January 1, 2005.

Persons in the India and China EB2 categories who will become "current" in March 2012 should do their best to ensure that they file their Adjustment of Status (AOS) applications during that month.  It is expected that a retrogression of dates will occur later this year.  Please note that there is no advantage to filing an AOS application on the first date of the month.  

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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