The Department of State (DOS) has issued its September 2019 Visa Bulletin. Overall, most employment-based categories this month had little advancement or retrogressed.  Employment-based category 1 (EB-1) for most nationals advanced by a little over a year, while for Chinese nationals it retrogressed by two and a half years, and for Indian nationals the EB-1 category is now unavailable. 

For the employment-based category 2 (EB-2), most nationals advanced by one year, while Chinese nationals had no advancement, and Indian nationals advanced by only six days.

 Lastly, the employment-based category 3 (EB-3) for most nationals saw no advancement. Chinese nationals retrogressed by 2 years and a half, Indian nationals retrogressed by six months, and Filipino nationals had no advancement. Lastly, the EB-3 category has been declared unavailable for the remainder of the fiscal year.

 Here’s a chart for ease of reference:

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

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 on www.uscis.gov/visabulletininfo 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 web site that you must use the Application Final Action Dates chart (which is above) to determine when you may file your adjustment of status application in the United States. For September 2019, USCIS has announced that the Application Final Action Dates must be used for employment-based filings.  

 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.