The Department of State issued its January 2010 Visa Bulletin. The new visa bulletin reveals little movement across employment-based immigration categories. The employment-based first preference (EB-1) category will remain current for all nationalities. Cut-off dates in the EB-2 category will remain stalled at January 22, 2005 for India, while they will advance slightly for China (May 1, 2005). The EB-2 category will remain current for all other countries.
The Eb-3 category cutoff for skilled workers is June 22, 2001 for India and July 1, 2002 for Mexico. The cutoff for China, Philippines, and all other countries is August 1, 2002. The cutoff for Eb-3 unskilled workers is June 1, 2001.
The January 2010 Visa Bulletin also contains the first projection of what priority dates are likely to become currently during this fiscal year, which is of great interest to adjustment of status applicants with long-pending applications. The Visa Bulletin predicts, based on current indications of demand, the best case scenarios for cut-off dates which will be reached by the end of FY-2010 (that is, by September 30, 2010) are as follows:
Eb-2:
China: July through October 2005
India: February through early March 2005
Eb-3:
Worldwide: April through August 2005
China: June through September 2003
India: January through February 2002
Mexico: January through June 2004
Philippines: April through August 2005
The Dept. of State advises that the above date ranges are only estimates which are subject to fluctuations in demand during the coming months. The actual future cut-off dates cannot be guaranteed, and it is possible that some annual limits could be reached prior to the end of the fiscal year.
