November 2008 Visa Bulletin – Slow Forward Movement

The November 2008 Visa Bulletin is out.  There are no surprises, although for many foreign nationals, who have an employment-based petition filed and pending, the update would not bring much joy.

If we could sum the results of the November 2008 Visa Bulletin, it would be “slow forward movement.”  According to the State Department (which is responsible for issuing the Visa Bulletin),  the high demand being received from USCIS for employment-based immigrant visas indicates that they have a significant amount of cases with priority dates that are earlier than the established cut-offs.   This is likely to result in slow forward movement of the cut-off dates for most employment-based categories during the next few months.

The Results

EB-1.  Employment-based first category (EB-1) is current for all countries.

EB-2 is current for all countries except China and India.  EB-2 China moved by two (2) months, from April to June 2004.  EB-2 India moved by two (2) months, from April to June 2003.

EB-3 China moved forward by four (4) months from October 2001 to February 2002.  EB-3 India moved forward by three (3) months, from July 2001 to October 2001.  EB-3 for the rest of the world (except Mexico and Philippines) moved forward  by four (4) months, from January to May 2005.