September 2012 Visa Bulletin: Employment is stagnant, Family advances

The September 2012 Visa Bulletin marks the end of fiscal year 2012 (FY12).  Unsurprisingly, the EB2 category for India and China remain unavailable; and for other countries the cutoff date is still January 1, 2009.  The situation is expected to change by October 1 as new visa numbers will be allocated by law for FY13.   EB3 Philippines, China and India all enjoy different degrees of advancement.

For family categories, there are some nice forward movements.  For examples, F1 advances two months for China, India and the Other Countries. F2A moves forward by seven weeks for most countries.   F2B jumps forward by almost three months to September 15, 2004 for China, India and the Other Countries.

Family	Other Countries	CHINA	INDIA	MEXICO	PHILIPPINES
F1	01OCT05	01OCT05	01OCT05	08JUN93	08NOV94
F2A	08MAY10	08MAY10	08MAY10	15APR10	08MAY10
F2B	15SEP04	15SEP04	15SEP04	22AUG92	01JAN02
F3	15MAY02	15MAY02	15MAY02	22JAN93	22JUL92
F4	08MAR01	22JAN01	08MAR01	15JUN96	01FEB89

 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
1st	C	C	C	C	C
2nd	01JAN09	U	U	01JAN09	01JAN09
3rd	01OCT06	15DEC05	08OCT02	01OCT06	01AUG06
Other Workers	01OCT06	22JUN03	08OCT02	01OCT06	01AUG06
4th	C	C	C	C	C
5th	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)