The Department of State has released the January 2020 Visa Bulletin. D&S provides a Monthly Summary of the employment-based priority dates. As of today, December 19, 2019, USCIS has not yet advised whether, in January 2020, it will once again accept adjustment of status applications for both employment-based and family-based petitions based on the January Bulletin’s application filing dates, as it has for the past few months.
With respect to Final Action Dates, all EB-1 countries of chargeability, except India and China, will advance two and a half months to October 1, 2018. EB-1 China will progress just one week to May 22, 2017, and EB-1 India will remain unchanged at January 1, 2015. With the exception of India and China, all other EB-2 countries of chargeability remain current. EB-2 China will advance just over a week to July 1, 2015, and EB-2 India will advance by only 3 days to May 18, 2009. EB-3 China will advance one month to December 1, 2015, EB-3 India will remain unchanged at January 1, 2009, and EB-3 Philippines will progress two weeks to March 15, 2018. All other EB-3 countries of chargeability will remain current.
With respect to Application Filing Dates, all EB-1 and EB-2 countries of chargeability besides India and China will remain current. EB-1 China will advance one month to October 1, 2017, and EB-1 India will remain unchanged at March 15, 2017. EB-2 India and China will remain unchanged at July 1, 2009 and August 1, 2016 respectively. All EB-3 categories of chargeability besides India and China will retrogress to January 1, 2019, while EB-3 China and India will remain unchanged from December at March 1, 2017 and February 1, 2010 respectively.
The EB-5 Regional Center program was extended in November and is now set to expire on December 20, 2019. Final action dates for this category have been listed as “Unavailable” for January. The final action dates for the EB-5 Non-Regional Center program, which will not be affected, will remain current with the exception of China, India, and Vietnam. EB-5 China will advance one week to November 22, 2014, while EB-5 India will advance four months to May 1, 2018, and EB-5 Vietnam will advance one week to December 8, 2016. If there is legislative action extending the categories for FY2020, the final action dates for the EB-5 Regional Center program would immediately become “Current” for January for all countries, except China, India, and Vietnam, which would match the Non-Regional Center dates. The EB-5 filing dates for all countries remain current, with the exception of EB-5 China, which remains unchanged at May 15, 2015.
The January visa bulletin includes projections for visa availability in the coming months. Some of the most notable projected changes include rapid forward movement for all EB-1 countries of chargeability except India and China, with the potential to become current. EB-1 China should see up to three weeks of progression, while little to no forward movement is expected for EB-1 India. EB-2 China and India are expected to progress up to one month and one week respectively, while EB-2 worldwide is expected to retrogress in the second half of the fiscal year. All EB-3 countries of chargeability besides India, China, and the Philippines are projected to retrogress by March of 2020. EB-3 China is expected to progress up to six weeks, EB-3 India up to three weeks, and EB-3 Philippines up to one month. Finally, EB-5 is expected to remain current for most countries, with EB-5 China expected to progress at a slightly faster pace and EB-5 India likely to progress rapidly until there is an increase in demand. Only limited forward movement is projected for EB-5 Vietnam.
Update: on 12/20/2019 USCIS announced that the “Dates of Filing” Chart should be used for Employment-Based adjustment of status applications filed in January 2020. Subsequently, USCIS issued a clarification stating “If USCIS determines there are more immigrant visas available for a fiscal year than there are known applicants for such visas, we will state on this page that you may use the Dates for Filing chart. Otherwise, we will indicate on this page that you must use the Final Action Dates chart to determine when you may file your adjustment of status application. However, if a particular immigrant visa category is “current” on the Final Action Dates chart or the cutoff date on the Final Action Dates chart is later than the date on the Dates for Filing chart, applicants in that immigrant visa category may file using the Final Action Dates chart during that month.” As such, individuals who are current under the Final Action Dates chart but not under the Dates of Filing chart may still file adjustment of status if otherwise eligible in January 2019.