June Bulletin: Major retrogression in Family 2A and Employment 3rd

In June, there is major retrogression in both family-based and employment-based categories, as predicted recently by the Visa Office of the State Department.

On the family side, F2A (spouses and children of permanent residents) moves back to May 1, 2012 for all countries except Mexico, which moves back for 13 months to March 15, 2011.  This family visa category was current for two months in August and September of 2013, generating a large number of cases.  Since then, there has been no forward movement.

On the employment side, the EB-3/Other Workers categories also suffer from major retrogression in June. The recent rapid forward movement in EB-3 has resulted in the filing of many I-485 adjustment applications, making it necessary to retrogress this category to control visa usage.  The situation is particularly prominent with EB-3 China, after many EB-2 applicants have filed new petitions to "downgrade" to EB-3 to take advantage of the advancement in cut-off dates over the past six months.  As a result, EB-3 China moves all the way back to October 1, 2006 in June's Visa Bulletin.  For those Chinese applicants who have a priority date before October 1, 2012, they can still try to downgrade and file their I-485s  in May.  Many of our clients have already submitted their I-485s; some of them actually have already been received their green cards.

On the other hand, EB-3 India actually advances 15 days to October 15, 2013.  EB-2 India is also expected to advance to 2008 later this year.

FAMILY	Other Countries	China	India	Mexico	Philippines
F1	03/22/07	03/22/07	03/22/07	12/15/93	06/01/02
F2A	05/01/12	05/01/12	05/01/12	03/15/11	05/01/12
F2B	04/01/07	04/01/07	04/01/07	08/01/93	07/15/03
F3	10/01/03	10/01/03	10/01/03	07/22/93	03/08/93
F4	12/15/01	12/15/01	12/15/01	12/08/96	11/15/90

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)

EMPLOYMENT	Other Countries	China	India	Mexico	Philippines
EB1	C	C	C	C	C
EB2	C	05/22/09	11/15/04	C	C
EB3	04/01/11	10/01/06	10/15/03	04/01/11	01/01/08
Other Workers	04/01/11	01/01/03	10/15/03	04/01/11	01/01/08
EB4	C	C	C	C	C
EB5	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)