June 2009 Visa Bulletin – EB-2 India Retrogresses Substantially

The June 2009 Visa Bulletin was released today.  Unfortunately, the only change is the EB-2 India category which changed from February 15, 2004 to January 1, 2000.  All other categories remain unchanged.  Here is a summary of the June 2009 Visa Bulletin:

• EB-1 remains current across the board.
• EB-2 remains unchanged for all categories except as noted above for EB-2 India:  EB-2 ROW (Rest of World) is current, EB-2 China remains February 15, 2005, and EB-2 India retrogressed to January 1, 2000.
• EB-3 is unavailable for all categories.
• Other worker visa numebers are also unavailable.

In one of the comments to the June 2009 Visa Bulletin, the State Department notes that “applicant demand for numbers, primarily for adjustment of status cases at Citizenship and Immigration Services offices, has been extremely heavy throughout the year.   As a result, visa availability during the final quarter could become limited as categories approach their annual numerical limits.”   At this point, it is not clear whether EB-2 will stay at January 1, 2000 for this month (June 2009) only or it will remain there for a few months due to the extremely heavy EB-2 India visa number demand.