On a monthly basis, the United States Department of State (USDOS) releases a visa bulletin that summarizes the availability of immigrant numbers of the current month to indicate when immigrant visa applicants should be notified to submit required documentation to the National Visa Center.
Immigrant numbers are only available to applicants who have priority dates that precede the date listed for their visa application category on the visa bulletin. However, the visa bulletin also makes note of the fact that several immigrant visa application categories are “current,” meaning that immigrant numbers can be issued to any qualified applicants that meet that category.
While the priority dates for EB-1 immigrant visa applicants have been current for the visa bulletins for previous months, the June 2017 visa bulletin showed a significant retrogression for EB-1 priority dates for applicants from China and India:
Employ-mentbased
All Charge-abilityAreas ExceptThose Listed
CHINA-mainlandborn
EL SALVADORGUATEMALAHONDURAS
INDIA
MEXICO
PHILIPPINES
1st
C
01JAN12
C
01JAN12
C
C
Therefore, in June, the immigrant visa numbers for Chinese and Indian EB-1 immigrant visa applicants are only available for applicants whose priority dates precede January 1, 2012.
The retrogression is likely due to the fact that there has been a recent high demand in the EB-1 category for all countries. Though not guaranteed, it is anticipated that these EB-1 priority dates will become current again for China and India by October 1, 2017, which is the first day of Fiscal Year 2018.
If you have any further questions regarding the latest visa bulletin, please do not hesitate to contact our offices.
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