July 2010 Visa Bulletin - Good News!

In July's Visa Bulletin recently published, there is good news for everybody - well, almost everybody. Regarding family petitions, there are nice movements across the board. Most categories moved forward by several months. Some categories jumped even more. For example, Philippines F2B (legal residents applying for adult children)advance by one year! The State Department explains that the movements are due to less demand for immigrant visas. Some applicants are not following up on their petitions, allowing the State Department to maximize the usage of alloted visa numbers. The situation may change if more applicants decide to pursue their petitions.

On the employment side, there is also good news. Eb-2 India moved ahead by eight months but Eb-2 China stayed unchanged at November 22, 2005.
Most Eb-3 categories advanced by about two months to August 15, 2003, except India, which advanced by one month, and Mexico, which remained unavailable.

Family	Other Countries	CHINA-mainland born	DOMINICAN REPUBLIC	INDIA	MEXICO	PHILIPPINES
1st	01APR05	01APR05	01APR05	01APR05	01NOV92	01SEP95
2A	01JUL08	01JUL08	01JUN07	01JUL08	01JUN07	01JUL08
2B	01MAY03	01MAY03	01MAY03	01MAY03	15JUN92	01MAR00
3rd	01SEP01	01SEP01	01SEP01	01SEP01	01MAR92	01MAY93
4th	01JAN01	01JAN01	01JAN01	01JAN01	01MAR95	01APR89

Employment- Based	Other Countries	CHINA- mainland born	DOMINICAN REPUBLIC	INDIA	MEXICO	PHILIPPINES
1st	C	C	C	C	C	C
2nd	C	22NOV05	C	01OCT05	C	C
3rd	15AUG03	15AUG03	15AUG03	22NOV01	U	15AUG03
Other Workers	01JUN01	01JUN01	01JUN01	01JUN01	U	01JUN01
4th	C	C	C	C	C	C
Certain Religious Workers	C	C	C	C	C	C
5th	C	C	C	C	C	C
Targeted Employ-ment Areas/ Regional Centers	C	C	C	C	C	C
5th Pilot Programs	C	C	C	C	C	C

Region	All DV Chargeability Areas Except Those Listed Separately
AFRICA	54,100	Except: Egypt: 24,500 Ethiopia: 25,100 Nigeria: 18,850
ASIA	23,500
EUROPE	32,000
NORTH AMERICA (BAHAMAS)	5
OCEANIA	1,300
SOUTH AMERICA, and the CARIBBEAN	1,500

The State Department predicted that the cut-off dates will continue to improve based on the current demand. The following are the "best-case- scenarios" cut-off dates by the end of FY-2010:

Employment First: Current

Employment Second:

China and India: March or April 2006

Employment Third:

Worldwide: June through September 2004
China: October through December 2003
India: February 2002
Mexico: Unavailable
Philippines: June through September 2004

Employment Fourth:

Worldwide: It may be necessary to establish a cut-off date for September.

Employment Fifth: Current