In the January 2019 Visa Bulletin (VB), the EB-1 category remains retrogressed for all countries. The EB-2 and EB-3 categories continue to be current for all countries except for India and China (and the Philippines in the EB-3 category). The EB-5 regional center category for all countries unavailable this month, as the regional center program was only extended to December 21, 2018. Fortunately, applicants are once again able to use the “Date for Filing Chart” to file their applications ahead of the priority dates posted in the “Final Action Date” chart. The filing dates for EB-3 applications continue to be months ahead of the filing date for the EB-2 category for India and China. For more information on the charts, please see our DOS Visa Bulletin and Quota Movement page.
This month’s VB highlights are as follows:
EB-1: All countries remain retrogressed. India and China have a final action date of December 15, 2016, whereas all other countries have a final action date of October 1, 2017. At this time, there is no anticipated date as to when this category is expected to become current.
EB-2: Apart from India and China, all countries are current, and are expected to remain current in the coming months. China and India continue to be the exceptions in that both countries have final action dates that have experienced no movement since last month’s VB, and neither country is anticipated to experience meaningful movement for the next few months.
EB-3: All countries are current. The exceptions are the Philippines, China and India, which will continue to have final action dates which are not anticipated to experience any meaningful movement in the coming months. That being said, the EB-3 filing action dates for India and China are ahead of the filing action dates in the EB-2 category – in India’s case, by nearly a year, whereas for China it is only a few months.
EB-5: On December 7, 2018, “Making further continuing appropriations for fiscal year 2019, and for other purposes” (H.J.Res.143) extended the EB-5 regional center categories until December 21, 2018. As such, the regional center final action dates for all countries have become unavailable. The non-regional center final action dates continue to remain current except for China and Vietnam, both of which only experienced very little nominal movement and neither of which is expected to see any large movement in the coming months.
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 VB 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, Schedule A): 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.
