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

• China: For the third month in a row, EB-1 and EB-3 both remain stalled at January 1, 2012, while EB-2 continues creeping forward, advancing three weeks to May 15, 2013
• India: EB-1 remains at January 1, 2012, EB-2 jumps ahead one month to August 22, 2008 and EB-3 moves forward three months to October 15, 2006
• Philippines: EB-2 moves ahead nine months to January 1, 2016 and EB-3 moves forward five months to November 1, 2015
• All Other Countries: EB-3 remains current, while EB-2 advances nine months to January 1, 2016

China EB-1, India EB-1 and All Other Countries EB-2 are expected to become current again in October 2017.

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