The Department of State (DOS) has issued its November 2019 Visa Bulletin. Overall, most employment-based categories this month had little advancement.

(Employment-based (“EB”) category 1 for all nationals (except for India and China) advanced by little over a month.  EB-1 for China moves forward three months and EB-1 India remains the same. The EB-2 category for all nationals continues to be current. China has a two and a half month advancement, and India advanced by one day. The EB-3 category is current for all nationals except for China and India, which saw no change from last month. The Philippines moves forward by three and a half months.

Here’s a chart for ease of reference:

WHAT DATES IN THE VISA BULLETIN SHOULD YOU USE FOR FILING YOUR ADJUSTMENT OF STATUS APPLICATION WITH USCIS?

If USCIS determines that there are more immigrant visas available for a fiscal year than there are known applicants for such visas, then USCIS will state here that you may use the Dates for Filing Visa Applications chart in the Department of State Visa Bulletin, which usually has dates earlier than the Final Action Dates noted above. Otherwise, USCIS will indicate on its website that you must use the Application Final Action Dates chart (above) to determine when you may file your adjustment of status application in the United States. 

For November 2019, USCIS has announced that the Dates for Filing chart may be used for employment-based filings, which is below. 

The entire visa bulletin can be found here, which includes priority dates for family-based categories and the diversity visa lottery. 

If you would like more information on how to understand the monthly visa bulletin, please check out our blog post here.

This alert is for informational purposes.  Please contact us if you would like to discuss these developments further.