July 2017 Visa Bulletin – EB-3 China Retrogresses, while EB-3 India Slowly Advances
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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 July Visa Bulletin, including Final Action Dates and changes from the previous month:

  • China EB-1 remains at January 1, 2012, EB-2 advances three weeks to March 22, 2013 and EB-3 reverses course and falls behind EB-2, retrogressing more than two years to January 1, 2012
  • India EB-1 holds steady at January 1, 2012, EB-2 continues its slow forward movement advancing three weeks to July 22 2008 and EB-3 jumps ahead nine months to February 15, 2006
  • Philippines EB-3 leaps forward an entire year to May 15, 2014
  • Worldwide EB-3 moves ahead seven weeks to June 8, 2017

China EB-1 and India EB-1 are expected to become current again in October 2017.

PLEASE NOTE: USCIS has not yet announced if it will accept I-485 applications in July 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.

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