The Department of State (DOS) has issued its December 2022 Visa Bulletin. Priority dates for the EB-2 category continue to retrogress for Indian nationals, and are no longer current for nationals of any country. Indian and Chinese nationals in the EB-3 categories experience modest forward movement, while priority dates for most family-based categories remain unchanged.

Employment-based Movement

The EB-1 category remains open (“current” or “C” in DOS talk) worldwide, including for Indian and Chinese nationals. The EB-2 category is no longer open for nationals of any country. There now is a month-long backlog for EB-2 cases for nationals of all countries except for India and China.

For nationals of China, the EB-2 priority dates remain the same as last month. For Indian nationals, the priority date retrogresses again by nearly six months :(

While the EB-3 category remains open for most nationals, the priority dates move forward by about six weeks for China and ten weeks for India.

Here’s a chart for ease of reference:

Family-based Movement

Final action dates for Mexican nationals in the F-3 category retrogress by two weeks, and remain the same for nationals of other countries.

By way of reminder, the categories are:

• F-1 category: unmarried sons and daughters of U.S. citizens

• F2-A category: spouses and children under 21 of lawful permanent residents

• F2-B category: unmarried adult children (over 21) of lawful permanent residents

• F-3 category: married sons and daughters of U.S. citizens

• F-4 category: siblings of U.S. citizens

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 December 2022, USCIS has confirmed the Dates for Filing chart (below) should be used for employment-based categories.

For family-based categories, the Dates for Filing chart, which is below, should be used.

If the priority date for your employment or family-based category is before the date listed above and you are in the United States, you may file your application to adjust status along with the applications for employment authorization and travel permission (assuming you have no bars to admissibility) with USCIS in December.

The entire visa bulletin is available on the State Department’s website, which includes the diversity visa lottery.

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

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