Business Immigration Insights

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 February Visa Bulletin, including Final Action Dates and changes from the previous month:

• China: EB-1 remains current, EB-2 advances nearly two months to October 1, 2013, and EB-3 jumps forward five months to September 15, 2014
• India: EB-1 remains current, EB-2 continues a slow forward crawl –advancing 16 days to December 8, 2008, and EB-3 leaps forward an entire month to December 1, 2006
• Philippines: EB-2 remains current and EB-3 advances two weeks to March 1, 2016
• All Other Countries: All EB categories are current

The February Visa Bulletin includes the following important projections for future movement through April/May 2018

• China and India EB-1 will remain current for the “next several months”
• China EB-2 is projected to move forward “several months” per month
• China EB-3 is expected to jump ahead “up to five months” per month
• India EB-2 will advance at a slow and steady pace (“up to two weeks” per month)
• India EB-3 is expected to leap forward “one to three months” every month
• Philippines EB-3 will advance slowly (“up to one month” each month)

NOTES:

• The above are projections provided by the Department of State based on current demand. Actual movement (forward or backward) will vary.
• USCIS has not yet announced if it will accept I-485 applications in February based on the Department of State’s Dates for Filing chart. However, the trend over the last several months has been to NOT honor the Dates for Filing chart, and instead only accept I-485 applications based on the Final Action Dates as listed above.