The Department of State released the June 2016 Visa Bulletin this week. D&S provides a Monthly Summary of the family and employment-based priority dates. For the second and third employment-based preference categories, Application Filing dates remained unchanged with the exception of EB-3 Other Workers which saw forward movement of almost 14 months from April 8, 2008 to August 1, 2009.
There was significant retrogression in several employment-based categories including EB-2 India, which retrogressed over 4 years from November 22, 2008 to October 1, 2004. EB-2 and EB-3 China also both experienced significant retrogression with EB-2 China retrogressing over 2 years from September 1, 2012 to January 1, 2010 and EB-3 China retrogressing over 3 years from August 15, 2013 to January 1, 2010, making EB-2 and EB-3 China priority dates the same for the coming month.
EB-3 India was the only employment-based category that moved forward with a modest advancement of 3 weeks from September 1, 2004 to September 22, 2004. Final Action dates for EB-3 Worldwide and EB-3 Mexico also remained unchanged and EB-3 Philippines progressed approximately 3 months.
The EB-5 China Final Action date advanced by just one week from February 8, 2014 to February 15, 2014.
As of today, May 10, 2016, USCIS has not advised whether in June 2016, it will accept adjustment of status applications for family or employment-based petitions based on filing dates, rather than final action dates. USCIS anticipates that this information will be released within one week of the monthly Visa Bulletin.
D&S will provide further updates as they become available.