The DOS has a final action date in the EB-1 category for China and India in the June 2017 Visa Bulletin (“VB”); otherwise, there has been little advancement in the EB-2 and EB-3 category for all countries. Moreover, except for China, all countries in the EB-5 categories remain current given Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2017, which extended a number of programs, including the regional center portion of the EB-5 immigrant investor pilot program, until September 30, 2017.
The June 2017 VB highlights are as follows:
EB-1: As the DOS has advised over the past few months, the June 2017 Visa Bulletin shows a final action date (i.e. January 1, 2012) for India and China. However, the final action date for these two countries will return to being current in the October 2017 Visa Bulletin, which is the first month of fiscal year 2018. All other countries remain current and are expected to remain so.
EB-2: All countries also remain current and should remain so in the coming months. China and India continue to remain the exceptions in that they still experience little movement forward, and no further meaningful movement is anticipated for the next few months for either country.
EB-3: As in prior months, all countries experienced very little advances – if any. Further, no meaningful movement is anticipated for the next few months in this category either. Unfortunately, the final action date for China is expected to retrogress by August to stay within the limits for this fiscal year (ending September 30th) due to many Chinese national applicants “downgrading” from EB-2 to EB-3, as since the October 2016 VB, the EB-3 final action dates for China have been ahead of the EB-2 final action dates.
EB-5: The regional center portion had become unavailable in the May 2017 VB due to the most recent sunset on April 28, 2017. On May 5, 2017, the Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2017 became law and extended the regional center program until September 30, 2017. As such, all countries are anticipated to remain current. The one exception continues to be China, which still experiences no real movement forward in its final action date from the previous month and is expected to only experience incremental advances.
General Notes on Final Action Dates: The final action or cutoff date is effectively one’s place in line to immigrate based on the individual’s priority date. Individuals with priority dates earlier than the listed cut-off date on the bulletin are eligible to submit applications for adjustment of status (or consular visa applications) or if their applications are already pending may have their cases adjudicated. If one’s priority date is not “current”, neither agency may accept the case for processing nor adjudicate a pending case because the “visa is not available” if the final action dates is not “current.” The priority date is established a number of ways:
- PERM: The date on which the application is filed with the Department of Labor, provided that the PERM is approved and an I-140 is then filed and approved based on the PERM.
- EB1 & EB2 (NIW): The date on which the I-140 is filed with the USCIS, provided that the petition is approved.
- EB-5: The date on which the Form I-526, Immigrant Petition by Alien Entrepreneur is received by USCIS, provided that the petition is approved.
- Family-based immigration cases: The date on which the I-130 is filed with the USCIS, provided that the petition is approved.
Note that DOS looks at one’s country of birth in determining whether one is a national of a given country, not the country of citizenship. It is country of birth (principal alien or his/her spouse) that determines the country of chargeability to be “counted” against for purposes of permanent residency. Counting against the country of birth of one’s spouse is called “cross-chargeability.”
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.
