The Visa Bulletin is released monthly by the Department of State and is used to determine when a sponsored foreign national can submit the final step of the green card process. The complete visa bulletin can be found here.
Below is a summary of the December Visa Bulletin, including Final Action Dates and changes from the previous month. Contrary to projections announced in the September Visa Bulletin, the EB-1 category will NOT return to current in December. In fact, despite some insignificant forward movement, unprecedented backlogs will continue in this category for all countries. The December Visa Bulletin does not include the customary note to explain this deviation.
- China: EB-1 advances slightly to September 1, 2016, EB-2 advances another six weeks to July 1, 2015, and EB-3 creeps forward seven days to at June 8, 2015
- India: EB-1 moves ahead three months to September 1, 2016, EB-2 advances six days to April 1, 2009, and EB-3 jumps forward two months to March 1, 2009
- Philippines: EB-1 advances three months to July 1, 2017, EB-2 remains current, and EB-3 creeps forward one week to June 15, 2017
- All Other Countries: EB-1 moves ahead three months to July 1, 2017, EB-2 and EB-3-remain current
NOTE: USCIS has not yet announced if it will accept I-485 applications in December based on the Department of State’s Dates for Filing chart. However, the trend over the last several months has been to accept employment based I-485 applications based on the Date for Filing chart.
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The State Department has published the March Visa Bulletin, marking the midpoint in the fiscal year. This is typically when priority dates slow their forward movement, stop entirely, or even reverse, but a series of executive orders that suspended green card applications from certain countries has resulted in accelerating them for other countries that are not subject to the suspension.
The State Department has published the February Visa Bulletin. All categories will freeze next month except All Other Countries EB-3 Professionals, which advances under both Final Action Dates and Dates for Filing.
The State Department has published the January Visa Bulletin. In most cases, advances in priority dates are even greater than they were in December, ranging from 1 week for All Other Countries EB-3 Professionals to 1 full year for China EB-3 Other Workers. Moreover, USCIS will continue using the Dates for Filing chart in January, allowing from 2 to 10 months of additional filing time, depending on nationality and category, with India the clear front-runner here.
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