The Department of State (DOS) has issued its November 2020 Visa Bulletin. We now cover both employment-based and family-based priority dates as detailed below.
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The Department of State (DOS) has issued its June 2020 Visa Bulletin. Overall, most employment categories will have modest forward movement. The two categories with a significant ten month advancement are employment-based category 1 (“EB-1”) for Indian nationals and employment-based category 3 (“EB-3”) for most nationals. Otherwise, the employment-based categories 1 and 2 for most nationals remain current.
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Three federal courts across the United States have temporarily suspended the enforcement of the Department of Homeland Security’s new “public charge” rule, which was set to take effect on October 15, 2019. This new rule redefines how the agency can determine whether a foreign national is at risk of needing public assistance, which would make the foreign national ineligible for admission, extension of status, or permanent residence.
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The Department of State (DOS) has issued its March 2019 Visa Bulletin. Overall, movement in all categories has slowed down. EB-1 for most nationals advanced by one month while Chinese and Indian nationals advanced by only fourteen days. For the EB-2 category, Chinese nationals advanced by three months while Indian nationals advanced by only three days. Lastly, EB-3 for Chinese nationals moved forward by seven days, while Indian nationals advanced by one month, and Philippine nationals advanced by four months.
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The Department of State (DOS) has issued its February 2019 Visa Bulletin. Overall, movement in all categories has slowed down. EB-1 for most nationals advanced by two months while Chinese and Indian nationals advanced by only one month. For the EB-2 category, Chinese nationals advanced by two months while Indian nationals advanced by only five days. Lastly, EB-3 for Chinese nationals moved forward by twenty-three days, while Indian and Philippine nationals advanced by a month and a few days.
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The Department of State (DOS) has issued its December 2018 Visa Bulletin. Overall, there was very little movement in most categories this month. EB-1 for all nationals advanced by three months. EB-2 worldwide is still current (except for China and lndia). EB-2 for Chinese nationals advanced by one and a half months, and EB-2 Indian nationals advanced by almost two months. EB-3 for Chinese and Philippine nationals moved forward by one week, while Indian nationals advanced by two months.
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The Department of State just announced that the online registration for the annual Green Card lottery, formally referred to as the Diversity Immigrant Visa Program 2020 (DV 2020), will begin at 12 noon, Eastern Daylight Time (EDT) (GMT–4), Wednesday, October 3, 2018, and end at 12 noon, Eastern Standard Time (EST) (GMT–5), Tuesday, November 6, 2018. We recommend registering as soon as possible because the DOS website slows down or freezes due to very heavy traffic towards the end of the registration period.
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The Department of State’s monthly Visa Bulletin can be difficult to understand. All those dates and charts and categories are confusing. But knowing how to read the Visa Bulletin is important if you are seeking permanent residence in the United States so you can understand how long you will have to wait before you finally have your green card. The following explanation is specifically for individuals going through the permanent residence process based on employment.
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The Department of State (DOS) has issued its August 2018 Visa Bulletin. Most notably, the Employment-Based (“EB”)-1 category for all nationals worldwide (except for China and India) is no longer current and has retrogressed to May 1, 2016. EB-1 for Chinese and Indian nationals had no movement. EB-2 and EB-3 worldwide remains current. EB-2 for Chinese nationals advanced by two months, but there was no movement for EB-2 Indian nationals. EB-3 for Chinese, Indian and Philippine nationals also moved forward.
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