We are pleased to report that today the U.S. Department of State’s Bureau of Consular Affairs published the March 2025 Visa Bulletin.
In this blog post, we breakdown the movement of the employment-based and family-sponsored categories in the coming month.
USCIS Adjustment of Status
For employment-based preference categories, the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) has confirmed it will continue to use the Final Action Dates chart to determine filing eligibility for adjustment of status to permanent residence in the month of March.
For family-sponsored preference categories, USCIS will also continue to use the Dates for Filing chart to determine filing eligibility for adjustment of status to permanent residence in the month of March.
We are pleased to report that today the U.S. Department of State’s Bureau of Consular Affairs published the February 2025 Visa Bulletin.
In this blog post, we breakdown the movement of the employment-based and family-sponsored categories in the coming month.
USCIS Adjustment of Status
For employment-based preference categories, the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) has confirmed it will use the Final Action Dates chart to determine filing eligibility for adjustment of status to permanent residence in the month of February.
For family-sponsored preference categories, USCIS will use the Dates for Filing chart to determine filing eligibility for adjustment of status to permanent residence in the month of February.
Today, the U.S. Department of State’s Bureau of Consular Affairs published the November Visa Bulletin.
In this blog post, we breakdown the movement of the employment-based and family-sponsored categories in the coming month.
USCIS Adjustment of Status
For employment-based and family-sponsored preference categories, the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) has confirmed it will continue to use the Dates for Filingchart to determine filing eligibility for adjustment of status to permanent residence in the month of November.
Highlights of the November 2024 Visa Bulletin
At a Glance
What can we expect to see in the month of November?
Employment-Based Categories
All employment-based Final Action Dates and Dates for Filing will remain the same in November when compared to the October Visa Bulletin
Family-Sponsored Categories
Final Action
F1 Mexico will advance by 1 year and 10 months to November 22, 2004
F2A Mexico will advance by 1.2 months to April 15, 2021
F2A All other countries will advance by 1.3 months to January 1, 2022
F2B Mexico will advance by 5.5 months to July 1, 2005
F3 Mexico will advance by 2 months to October 22, 2000
F3 Except for the Philippines All other countries will advance by 2 weeks to April 15, 2010
We are pleased to inform our readers that yesterday July 9th, the U.S. Department of State’s Bureau of Consular Affairs released the August Visa Bulletin. In this blog post we breakdown the projected movement of the employment-based and family-sponsored categories in the month of August.
USCIS Adjustment of Status
For employment-based preference categories, the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) has confirmed that in August it will continue to use the Final Action Dates chart to determine filing eligibility for adjustment of status to permanent residence.
For family-sponsored preference categories, USCIS will continue to use the Dates for Filingchart to determine filing eligibility for adjustment of status to permanent residence.
Highlights of the August 2024 Visa Bulletin
Employment-Based Categories
Final Action and Dates for Filing EB-2 and EB-3 India Advancement
The Final Action date for EB-2 India will advance to July 15, 2012 and the Date for Filing to July 22, 2012
The Final Action date for EB-3 India will advance to October 22, 2012 and the Date for Filing to November 1, 2012
Other Categories
The Final Action dates and Dates for Filing for the remaining employment-based categories remain the same as the July Visa Bulletin
EB-3 Retrogression in September
The State Department warns applicants that the EB-3 Final Action date will likely retrogress or become unavailable in the September Visa Bulletin
Family-Sponsored Categories
Dates for Filing Advancements
F-2A Spouses and Children of Permanent Residents
F2A All countries will advance by seven and a half months to June 15, 2024 (from November 1, 2023)
F3 Married Sons and Daughters of U.S. Citizens
Except for Mexico and the Philippines, all other countries will advance by three months to January 1, 2011 (from October 1, 2010)
F-4 Brothers and Sisters of Adult U.S. Citizens
F4 Mexico will advance by two days to April 30, 2001
Final Action Date Advancements
F-2B Unmarried Sons and Daughters (21 years of age or older) of Permanent Residents
F2B Mexico will advance by one week to July 15, 2004
In this blog post, we provide new insights recently shared by Charlie Oppenheim, the former Chief of Immigrant Visa Control and Reporting at the U.S. Department of State, who oversaw the monthly publication of the Visa Bulletin until his retirement in 2022.
In a recent Chatting with Charlie webinar, he provided his expertise regarding the future movement of the employment based and family preference categories on the Visa Bulletin.
The Dates for Filing for the employment based and family sponsored preference categories have remained the same since the publication of the October Visa Bulletin with no forward movement to be seen.
In the month of February, the Final Action Datesprogressed only slightly as follows:
Employment-based
EB-2 Worldwide advanced by two weeks to November 15, 2022
EB-3 India advanced by one month to July 1, 2012
EB-3 all other countries advanced by one month to September 1, 2022 (except China)
EB-5 China (Unreserved) advanced by one week to December 15, 2015.
Family-sponsored
F2A all categories (except Mexico) advanced by more than 3 months to February 8, 2020
F2A Mexico advanced by more than 3 months to February 1, 2020
As we do every month, we share what you can expect to see in the upcoming month’s visa bulletin for family-sponsored and employment-based preference categories to help you prepare for your immigrant visa filing at a U.S. Consulate overseas, or your green card filing for those residing in the United States.
Highlights of the August 2023 Visa Bulletin
Employment Based Categories
Final Action cutoff dates – Retrogressions in August:
EB-1 India will retrogress by more than 10 years to January 1, 2012, in August 2023. The State Department indicates that depending on usage in the category and on the FY 2024 annual numerical limit, it is likely that in October 2023 the cutoff date will return to at least February 1, 2022
EB-1 Worldwide, China: The State Department has imposed a final action cutoff date for EB-1A Worldwide for all countries except China, at August 1, 2023. The EB-1 China Final Action Date will remain at February 1, 2022.
EB-2 Worldwide, China: EB-2 China will advance by one month, to July 8, 2019. The Final Action Date for EB-2 India will remain at January 1, 2011. The EB-2 Worldwide Final Action Date will advance by six weeks, to April 1, 2022 for all other countries.
EB-3: The Final Action Date for EB-3 China Professional/Skilled Worker will advance by two months, to June 1, 2019. EB-3 India Professional/Skilled Worker will remain at January 1, 2009. For all other countries, the EB-3 Professional/Skilled Worker Final Action Date will retrogress by almost two years, to May 1, 2020.
Family-sponsored categories
Dates for Filing cutoff dates – Advancements in August:
F-1 Mexico will advance by 2 years and 3 months to April 1, 2005 from January 1, 2003
F2A will remain current for all categories
F2B Mexico will advance by 2 years and 4 months to August 1, 2004 from April 1, 2002
What is the Visa Bulletin?
The Department of State releases the visa bulletin on a monthly basis, which summarizes the availability of immigrant visa numbers for that particular month in the employment and family preference categories.
Adjustment of Status Filing Chart August 2023
The U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) has published guidance indicating that USCIS will accept employment-based adjustment of status applications from foreign nationals with a priority date that is earlier than the Final Action Dates listed in the State Department’s August 2023 Visa Bulletin.
For family-sponsored filings, USCIS will accept adjustment of status applications from foreign nationals with a priority date that is earlier than the Dates for Filinglisted in the State Department’s August 2023 Visa Bulletin.
You may also find the Adjustment of Status USCIS Filing Charts here:
August 2023 Visa Bulletin Dates for Filing Cutoff Dates
Employment-Based Categories
FINAL ACTION DATES FOR EMPLOYMENT-BASED PREFERENCE CASES
According to the Department of State’s August 2023 Visa Bulletin, the following Final Action cutoff dates will apply for employment-based categories, which will determine whether an adjustment of status application can be filed with USCIS in the month of August:
EB-1: China remains unchanged at February 1, 2022. India will retrogress by 10 years and 1 month, to January 1, 2012. All other countries will receive a final action cutoff date of August 1, 2023.
EB-2: India will remain at January 1, 2011. China will remain by 1 month to July 8, 2019. All other countries will advance by 6 weeks to April 1, 2022
EB-3 Professionals and Skilled Workers: India will remain at January 1, 2009. China will advance by 2 months to June 1, 2019. All other countries will retrogress by 1 year and 9 months to May 1, 2020.
EB-3 Other Workers: India will remain at January 1, 2009, China will remain at September 1, 2015. All other countries will remain at January 1, 2020.
EB-4: All countries will remain at September 1, 2018.
EB-5: For the EB-5 Unreserved categories (C5, T5, I5, and R5), India will remain at April 1, 2017, and China will remain at September 8, 2015. All other countries will remain current. The EB-5 “Set-Aside” categories (Rural, High Unemployment, and Infrastructure) will remain current.
It’s that time of the month again. Time to share the latest trends and projections of the July Visa Bulletin!
To help you prepare for your upcoming immigrant visa or green card filing, in this blog post, we share what you can expect to see in the upcoming month’s visa bulletin for family-sponsored and employment-based preference categories.
Here are some of the highlights from the July 2023 Visa Bulletin
Employment-based categories
EB-3 India will retrogress by more than 3.5 years to January 1, 2009. EB-3 for all countries except China will retrogress by 4 months to February 1, 2022.
EB-1, EB-2, and EB-5 cutoff dates will remain the same in July as before.
Dates for Filing cutoff dates in the employment-based categories remain the same as June.
Family-sponsored categories
Dates for Filing cutoff dates – Advancements in July:
F-1 Mexico will advance by 1 month to January 1, 2003 from December 1, 2002
F-1 China, India, World will advance by 8 months to September 1, 2017 from January 1, 2017
F2B Mexico will advance by 3 months to April 1, 2002 from January 1, 2002
F3 China, India, World will advance by 3 weeks to March 1, 2010 from February 8, 2010
F4 China and World will advance by 1 month to March 1, 2008 from February 1, 2008
F4 Mexico will advance by 2 weeks to April 15, 2001 from April 1, 2001
Final Action cutoff dates – Advancements in July:
F1 Mexico will advance by 3 weeks to April 22, 2001, from April 1, 2001
F2B Mexico will advance by 2 months to August 1, 2001, from June 1, 2001
F3 China, India, World will advance by 2 weeks to December 22, 2008, from December 8, 2008
F3 Mexico will advance by 2.5 months to January 15, 1998, from November 1, 1997
F4 China and World will advance by 2 weeks to April 22, 2007, from April 8, 2007
What is the Visa Bulletin?
The Department of State releases the visa bulletin on a monthly basis, which summarizes the availability of immigrant visa numbers for that particular month in the employment and family preference categories.
Adjustment of Status Filing Chart July 2023
The U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) has not yet published guidance regarding the appropriate chart to use for adjustment of status filings in the month of July. Once the announcement is made, USCIS will indicate whether they will accept adjustment of status applications based on the Final Action Dates chart or the Dates for Filing chart. As soon as we have that information, we will provide it in this blog post.
You may also find the information here once it is published:
July 2023 Visa Bulletin Dates for Filing Cutoff Dates
Employment-Based Categories
FINAL ACTION DATES FOR EMPLOYMENT-BASED PREFERENCE CASES
According to the Department of State’s July 2023 Visa Bulletin, the following Final Action cutoff dates will apply for employment-based categories, which will determine whether an adjustment of status application can be filed with USCIS in July:
EB-1: All countries will remain current, except for India and China, which will have a cutoff date of February 1, 2022
EB-2: India will remain at January 1, 2011. China will remain at June 8, 2019. All other countries will remain at February 15, 2022
EB-3 Professionals and Skilled Workers: India will retrogress by 3.5 years to January 1, 2009, and China will remain at April 1, 2019. All other countries will retrogress by four months to February 1, 2022.
EB-3 Other Workers: India will retrogress by 3.5 years to January 1, 2009, China will remain at September 1, 2015. All other countries will remain at January 1, 2020.
EB-4: All countries will remain at September 1, 2018.
EB-5: For the EB-5 Unreserved categories (C5, T5, I5, and R5), China will remain at September 8, 2015, and India will remain at April 1, 2017. All other countries will remain current. The EB-5 “Set-Aside” categories (Rural, High Unemployment, and Infrastructure) will remain current.
It’s that time of the month again. The Department of State has released the May 2023 Visa Bulletin, giving you the latest updates on visa availability for family-sponsored and employment-based preference categories.
To help you prepare for your upcoming immigrant visa or green card filing, we share what you can expect to see in the upcoming month’s visa bulletin.
Here are some of the highlights from the May 2023 Visa Bulletin:
For employment-based preference adjustment of status filings, USCIS will continue to use the Final Action Dates chart, as they did in April.
For the month of May, EB-1 India and China will maintain their Final Action cutoff date of February 1, 2022, and Dates for Filing cutoff date of June 1, 2022. All other countries remain current. DOS warns applicants that cutoff dates for EB1 China and India will likely retrogress in the near future.
For the month of May, the EB-2 India Final Action and Dates for Filing cutoff dates will remain at January 1, 2011, and May 1, 2012, respectively.
For all other countries, except China and India, the EB-2 Final Action cutoff date will retrogress by four and a half months to February 15, 2022. Their Dates for Filing cutoff date will remain at December 1, 2022.
In May, the EB-3 China Professional/Skilled Worker category will advance by five months to April 1, 2019, for Final Action, and by four months to June 1, 2019 for Dates for Filing.
The EB-3 India Professional/Skilled Worker Final Action date will remain at June 15, 2012, and the Dates for Filing cutoff will remain at August 1, 2012.
Future retrogressions are expected for EB-1 India and China in the coming months, as well as EB-2 and EB-5 India as early as June.
In today’s blog post, we share some interesting Question and Answer responses recently provided by the Department of State’s Office of the Assistant Legal Adviser for Consular Affairs (L/CA), in a meeting with the American Immigration Lawyers Association (AILA).
The responses below provide some important insight into current immigration policies and procedures taking place amid the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic.
Here, we summarize the most interesting questions covered during the January 20 meeting:
Department of State/AILA Liaison Committee Meeting
January 20, 2022 Q & A Highlights
Q: What role do Consular sections assume when determining whether an individual is exempt from the CDC COVID-19 vaccine requirement to gain entry to the U.S.?
A: Consular sections’ role in the process is to ensure that an individual’s request for a [vaccine] exception is filled out in full, and to transmit those requests to the CDC.
Q: If consular posts are involved in transmitting information in support of a humanitarian exception to CDC, what is the process, if any, for making such a request of a consular post outside the context of a visa interview?
A: Travelers should contact the consular section of the nearest embassy or consulate using the information provided on that embassies or consulate’s website
Q: What is the Department of State doing to alleviate the substantial backlogs created by the slowdown of operations at Consular posts and Embassies worldwide?
A: The Department is planning to hire foreign service officers above attrition in FY 2022. The majority will be assigned to a consular position after initial training. Additionally, the Department continues to recruit Limited Non-career Appointment (LNA) Consular Professionals. With very limited LNA hiring in FY 2020 and a pause on LNA hiring in FY 2021 due to CA’s budgetary constraints, Consular Affairs plans to hire more than 60 LNAs in FY 2022
Consular Affairs is working with State’s office of Global Talent Management to ramp up hiring in FY 2022, but many posts will not see these new officers until the second half of FY 2022 or FY 2023, particularly for officers assigned to positions requiring language training. Increased hiring will not have an immediate effect on reducing current visa wait times. Because local pandemic restrictions continue to impact a significant number of our overseas posts, extra staff alone is not sufficient to combat wait times for interviews.
Q: Can Consular Affairs please advise regarding efforts to resume routine consular services?
A: Consular sections abroad must exercise prudence given COVID’s continuing unpredictability. The emergence of the Omicron variant has prompted countries to reevaluate plans to relax travel bans, thereby leading consular sections abroad to recalibrate plans to resume services. Some posts have already fully resumed routine services. Others, in an abundance of caution and out of concern for the health of both consular staff and clientele, are slowly reintroducing some routine services.
Welcome back to Visalawyerblog! In this blog post we share with you an overview of the State Department’s August 2021 Q&A answer session with Charlie Oppenheim, Chief of the Immigrant Visa Control and Reporting Division of the U.S. Department of State, also known as “Chats with Charlie,” broadcasted every month on the State Department’s YouTube channel.
This new series features a monthly Question-and-Answer session with Mr. Charles Oppnheim and a Consular officer, where they answer many of the public’s frequently asked questions and provide a monthly analysis of each month’s Visa Bulletin. This discussion will provide details regarding what to expect in terms of the movement or retrogression of both family and employment-based preference categories on each month’s Visa Bulletin.
Questions for Charlie can be emailed in advance to VisaBulletin@state.gov ahead of each monthly session with “Chat with Charlie Question” in the subject line.
Be sure to subscribe to the State Department’s YouTube Channel and turn on your notifications so you do not miss any of these important updates.
Below are the highlights of the trends and visa projections for August 2021 and beyond.
DOS Q&A Session with Charlie Oppenheim: August 2021 Visa Bulletin Projections & Beyond
Charlie Oppenheim advises against sending “mass like” chain emails to the Charlie Chats email address
Before we get into the questions for this session, I wanted to add that I have seen a significant number of questions being received that maybe online chat groups have provided in a suggested “copy this text” approach that were sent to the Charlie Chat email address. I want to say that this is a very unproductive approach to asking questions, since we must open a significant number of messages with the same question, and that diminishes our ability to review the hundreds and hundreds of questions which are coming in each month. Therefore, it’s likely that we may miss important questions which listeners would like addressed. I am happy to see questions come in but this massive number of duplicates is unproductive to the listener group.
The Top 8 Advance Questions Sent in By Listeners
Q: I submitted all my documentation to NVC a long time ago and I confirmed on their website that everything is completed correctly. My priority date became eligible in March, but I have not yet been scheduled for my final visa interview. Why haven’t I been scheduled despite the eligibility and when can I expect to be scheduled?
A: This is a question we have been getting a lot. It’s important to say that throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, the NVC has continued to schedule appointments and is warehousing cases for Consular sections that have not been able to resume the routine Immigrant Visa processing. Depending on the country’s local restrictions and resources, the Consular sections abroad provide their projected capacity for scheduling to the NVC about 30-60 days in advance.
This allows NVC to begin scheduling those appointments and getting the information out to the applicants early. Other than age-out cases, inter-country adoption cases, and expedite requests, based on certain FAM regulations upon visa availability, the NVC schedules their Immigrant Visa appointments for visa categories in chronological order, based on the date in which the case was deemed “documentarily qualified,” meaning they have been asked to submit certain required documents, all those documents have been received, and have been verified. Then the NVC fills the available appointment slots in a first come, first out manner within each visa class, in accordance with each Consular section’s capacity.
I would advise listeners to refer to the guidance on the NVC Immigrant Visa backlog report website to view the worldwide data count of applicants which have been processed by NVC. Then that will determine how many have become documentarily complete. NVC and the overseas posts are trying to get to all the appointments and applicants as quickly as possible. It’s being done in chronological order and basically, they’re having to catch up on cases that could have been scheduled as far back as March 2020.
Visa Lawyer Blog
We are pleased to report that today the U.S. Department of State’s Bureau of Consular Affairs published the March 2025 Visa Bulletin.
