September 2010 Visa Bulletin: Rapid Advancements Continue

The State Department publishes the Visa Bulletin every month to advise the public the availability of immigrant visa numbers in each preference category.  The first table is for family-based immigration and the second for employment-based.  If the priority date printed on the receipt of your petition is before the cut-off date in your category, then you’re eligible for an immigrant visa.  “C” means there are visas for all applicants, and “U” means visas are unavailable.

  

The forward movements of employment and family visa cut-off days continue in September – the last month of the Fiscal Year 2010.  On the employment side, EB-2 China and India both advanced by two months to May 8, 2006, while all other countries including Philippines and Mexico remained current.  The EB-2 category is for applicants with advance degrees, exceptional ability, or requests for a “national interest waiver”.  EB-3 China and EB-3 Philippines advanced one month and six months respectively.  The EB-3 visa category is for professional workers with a bachelor’s degree and skilled workers with two years of technical training.  For unskilled workers, China, Philippines, Dominican Republic and other countries (except India and Mexico) advanced rapidly by ten months to March 22, 2003. 

On the family side, there are nice advancements across the visa categories.  The most significant movements are within Family 2A (spouses and children under age of 21 of lawful permanent residents) and Family 2B (unmarried sons and daughters of lawful permanent residents).  F-2A for most countries including China, India, and the Philippines advanced jumped forwarded by ten months; F-2B for most countries advanced twelve months.

Green card applicants should take advantage of these movements to take appropriate actions. For instance, employment visa applicants should submit their I-485 adjustment applications if their priority dates are current.  At the same time, they should file the related I-765 application for employment authorization document and I-131 application for advance parole document.  Family visa applicants who are planning to apply for their green cards in the U.S. should take similar actions.  For overseas applications, they should follow up with the National Visa Center to ensure that their visa petitions are being processed in a timely fashion especially if they have dependent children to prevent the issue of “aging out.”  Retrogression of visa numbers have happened in the past and may happen again when the new fiscal year begins next year. Therefore one must take timely actions to take advantage of the current visa bulletin.

FAMILY	Other Countries	China	India	Mexico	Philippines	Dom. Republic
F-1	2006/1/1	2006/1/1	2006/1/1	1992/12/1	1997/1/1	2006/1/1
F-2A	2010/1/1	2010/1/1	2010/1/1	2009/1/1	2010/1/1	2009/1/1
F-2B	2005/1/1	2005/1/1	2005/1/1	1992/6/15	2002/8/1	2005/1/1
F-3	2002/3/1	2002/3/1	2002/3/1	1992/3/1	1995/1/1	2002/3/1
F-4	2001/10/15	2001/10/15	2001/10/15	1994/1/1	1994/1/1	2001/10/15

1st: Unmarried Sons and Daughters of Citizens (about 23,000 per year).

2A: The 2 "A" preference is for Spouses and Children (under 21 & unmarried) of LPR's.

2B: The 2 "B" Preference is for Unmarried Sons and Daughters (21 or older) of LPR's.

3rd: Married Sons and Daughters of Citizens.(about 23,000 per year)

4th: Brothers and Sisters of Adult Citizens.(about 65,000 per year)

FAMILY	Other Countries	China	India	Mexico	Philippines	Dom. Republic
EB-1	C	C	C	C	C	C
EB-2	C	2006/5/8	2006/5/8	C	C	C
EB-3	2004/12/15	2003/10/22	2002/1/1	U	2004/12/15	2004/12/15
Other Workers	2003/3/22	2003/3/22	2002/1/1	U	2003/3/22	2003/3/22
EB-4	C	C	C	C	C	C
Religious	C	C	C	C	C	C
EB-5	C	C	C	C	C	C

1st: Priority Workers (Extraordinary ability aliens, multinational companies executives/managers, outstanding prof./researchers)

2nd: Members of the Professions Holding Advanced Degrees or Persons of Exceptional Ability.

3rd: Skilled Workers, Professionals, and Other Workers (Unskilled.)

4th: "Special Immigrants" (Religious & others)

5th: Employment Creation (Investors)