August 2010 Visa Bulletin – EB-2 and EB-3 Substantial Forward Movement

The August 2010 Visa Bulletin was just released by the State Department.  The eleventh visa bulletin for the fiscal year 2010 brings some substantial forward movement in the EB-2 India category which had not moved for the past few months.  Also, there is some gradual forward across all EB-3 employment-based categories.

Summary of the August 2010 Visa Bulletin – Employment-Based (EB)

Below is a summary of the August 2010 Visa Bulletin with respect to employment-based petitions:

• EB-1 remains current across the board.
• EB-2 ROW (Rest of World) remains current, EB-2 China moves forward by slightly over three (3) months to March 1, 2006, EB-2 India moves forward by five (5) months from October 1, 2005 to March 1, 2006.
• EB-3 ROW moves forward by nine and a half months (9.5) months to June 1, 2004, EB-3 China  moves forward by slightly over one (1) month to September 22, 2003, while EB-3 India moves forward by slightly over one (1) month to January 1, 2002.  EB-3 Mexico remains unavailable.
• The “other worker” category moves forward by a few months, to May 15, 2002 for ROW and China and to January 1, 2002 for India.

Substantial Forward Movement Continues

The notable forward movement in EB-2 and some EB-3 categories continues in this month’s visa bulletin as well.   This significant movement is due to the fact that there are some visa numbers available from other countries have not been reached yet and such countries’ per-country limit has not been reached.  As a result, as we are getting close to the end of the fiscal year, and after taking the worldwide demand into account, the State Department has determined only 8,100 of the total available EB-2 preference numbers would be used in that quarter.   In this case, the unused 3,500 numbers could then be made available to China-mainland born and India regardless of their per-country limits.

Forward Movement Is Temporary

Note that the substantial forward movement  does not indicate a trend; instead, the last two visa bulletins’ forward movement was to ensure that no available visa numbers remain unused due to poor allocation of the unused numbers.  We expect that there be some retrogression over the next 1-3 months.

Please do not hesitate to contact us if you have any questions or if we can help you prepare and file your I-485 adjustment application, should your priority date become current.