Priority dates slightly advanced in June for Employment-Based immigration

Newsletter Vol. XXIII, no. 9, June 5, 2013, Issue No. 1

In April, we published an article alerting readers to the fact that the EB-2 and EB-3 dates will slightly advance for May. Last month the U.S. State Department released the visa bulletin for the month of June, and the following are some of the changes:

Employment-Based: First Preference (EB-1)

For this category the priority date remains current for all chargeability countries.

Employment-Based: Second Preference (EB-2) 

The priority date cut-off for EB-2 remains current for all other countries of chargeability except China and India. The priority date cut-off  remains unchanged for India, September 1, 2004, and for China it moved merely by two months.

Employment-Based: Third Preference (EB-3) 

The cut-off date for EB-3 for all chargeability areas except for India and the Philippines moved by nine months to September 1, 2008. The cut-off date for India moved by two weeks to January 8, 2003 and for the Philippines moved only by a week to September 22, 2006.

The cut off date for the Other Workers sub-category under EB-3 remained the same as the regular EB-3 for all countries except for China. For China the cut-off date is now October 22, 2003.

Employment-Based: Fourth Preference (EB-4) and Fifth Preference (EB-5)

The priority dates remain current for all countries of chargeability under these categories.

Conclusion

The Visa Bulletin further states that the EB-3 category cut-off date for most countries has advanced for a second month in a row, however this recent movement of the dates is not indicative of what can be expected in the future. Rapid forward movement of cut-off dates is often followed by a dramatic increase in demand for numbers within three to six months. Once such demands begin to materialize the cut-off date movement will begin to slow, or even stop for a period of time. The Law Offices will update our subscribers as soon as priority dates change further.