The Department of State (DOS) has issued its October 2022 Visa Bulletin.  October 1 marks the start of the new fiscal year so all the immigrant visa categories typically benefit from new visa numbers and most immigrant visa applicants see progress in their place in line for permanent residence.   

Unfortunately, the big news for the October 2022 Visa Bulletin is that the priority date for Indian nationals in the EB-2 category will retrogress by over two years since last month. Priority dates for Chinese nationals in the EB-2 and EB-3 categories and for Indian nationals in the EB-3 category will have modest forward movement. Family-based priority dates largely remain the same. 

To give you a wider perspective on the progress of the priority dates, we have a five-year retrospective of the movement of priority dates for employment-based cases at the end of this post. While EB-2 dates for Indian and Chinese nationals have continued a forward trend over the past five years, EB-3 dates for Indian and Chinese nationals actually moved back between October 2021 and October 2022. 

 The DOS has not yet resumed its discussions about the monthly Visa Bulletin on their YouTube Channel. 

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 and EB-3 categories also remain open for most nationals except for nationals of China and India. The priority date for EB-2 India has retrogressed by two years and eight months, while the EB-2 and EB-3 dates for Chinese nationals and the EB-3 dates for Indian nationals advance by several months.

Here’s a chart for ease of reference:

Family-based Movement

For the most part, final action dates for all family-based categories do not move forward in October, except for the F-2A category for Mexican nationals, which is now current.

By way of reminder, the family-based 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 October 2022, USCIS has confirmed the Dates for Filing chart, which is below, should be used for all employment-based categories.

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

If the priority date for your 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 October. 

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

A FIVE-YEAR RETROSPECTIVE

For immigrant visa applicants in categories that are backlogged, understanding the long- term patterns may be helpful.  Below is a chart showing the movement in the three employment-based categories over the last five years.

For family-based applicants, below is a chart showing the movement in the main categories over the last five years.

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.