The DOS’s July 2017 Visa Bulletin (VB) confirms that the EB-3 category for China retrogressed, and the EB-1 category for China and India continues to be retrogressed. On the other hand, the final action date in the EB-3 category for the Philippines advanced by nearly a year, and advanced several months to nearly a year for India. Otherwise, the EB-1 and EB-2 visa categories for all countries (except China and India), and the EB-5 category for all countries (except China), remain current.
This month’s VB highlights are as follows:
EB-1: As was seen last month, both India and China have retrogressed (i.e. to a final action date of January 1, 2012 from being current). However, both 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 remain current in this category, and do not expect any changes in the coming months. China and India continue to be the exceptions in that they both have final action dates that continue to experience little movement forward, and no meaningful movement is anticipated for the next few months for either country.
EB-3: As predicted last month, China retrogressed (i.e. to a final action date of January 1, 2012 from October 1, 2014). However, in the October 2017 Visa Bulletin the China final action date in this category date will return to October 1, 2014. The good news is that the Philippines advanced a year, and India advanced by nearly a year. However, there was little meaningful movement forward for any other country.
EB-5: 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 remain current except for China, which has only experienced incremental advances and is not expected to see any large 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.
