This just came in, Charlie Oppenheim, the Chief of the U.S. Department of State’s Immigrant Visa Control and Reporting Division, has confirmed a dramatic reduction in the use of EB-1 immigrant visa numbers and the resulting favorable effect on the EB-2 category for immigrant visas chargeable to India.
Due to a consistent reduction in demand since October 2010 for EB-1 immigrant visa numbers, the otherwise unused numbers will “drop down and be available for use in the EB-2 category.” According to Mr. Oppenheim’s comments, that could mean that a potential 12,000 additional numbers will be available to the EB-2 category. This situation will most likely result in an advance of the India EB-2 cut-off date for May’s Visa Bulletin. The reason for this effect on the EB-2 category is that “otherwise unused numbers are provided strictly in priority date order, and the India demand has the largest concentration of early dates.”
We will keep you posted.