Department of State November 2015 Visa Bulletin Summary

The Department of State released the November 2015 Visa Bulletin today.  D&S provides a Monthly Summary of the family and employment based priority dates.  This month, the Filing dates for China and India remained unchanged for both the EB-2 and EB-3 preference categories. The Final Action dates for EB-2 India progressed a little over a year to August 1, 2006, and EB-3 India progressed just under one month to April 1, 2004. EB-2 China had a modest progression of one month to February 1, 2012 and EB-3 China progressed approximately 2.5 months to January 1, 2012.  Finally, the EB-5 China Filing date held steady at May 1, 2015 and the Final Action date progressed a little over one month to November 22, 2013.

The release of the November 2015 Visa Bulletin is further confirmation that the original October 2015 Visa Bulletin (originally released on September 9, 2015) which was superseded by an updated version (released on September 25, 2015) will not be restored at this time, despite the pending federal class action lawsuit filed against the Department of Homeland Security and the Department of State. While the underlying lawsuit remains pending, earlier this week the U.S. District court denied the plaintiff's request for a temporary restraining order which would have forced the government to revert to the original version of the October 2015 Visa Bulletin. 

D&S will continue to monitor this and post updates as they become available.

Department of State October 2015 Visa Bulletin Summary

The Department of State released the October 2015 Visa Bulletin yesterday evening in conjunction with a joint announcement with USCIS implementing revised procedures for determining immigrant visa availability.  D&S provides a monthly Summary of the family and employment based priority dates.  For October, employment based priority dates (the “Final Action” dates) for EB-2 and EB-3 India experienced a slight retrogression with EB-2 india moving back 8 months from January 1, 2006 to May 1, 2005.  However, under the new system nationals of India in the EB-2 preference category with priority dates on or before June 1, 2011, will be eligible to file the adjustment of status applications starting in October, roughly 6 years earlier than they could have filed under the prior system.  For EB-3 India, which retrogressed just over 5 months to March 8, 2004, the difference between the “Application Filing” date and “Final Action” date is less significant, allowing EB-3 Indian nationals to file their permanent residence applications approximately 1 year and 4 months earlier that under the prior system.  

There was significant forward movement in priority dates (“Final Action” dates) for EB-2 China, which progressed 6 years from January 1, 2006, to January 1, 2012.   Additionally, under the new system, EB-2 Chinese nationals with priority dates on or before May 1, 2014, are able to file their permanent residence applications starting in October, over 2 years earlier than under the previous system.  There was also significant forward movement in EB-3 China of almost 7 years with priority dates (“Final Action” dates) moving forward from December 22, 2004 to October 15, 2011.  Additionally, starting in October, EB-3 Chinese nationals with priority dates on or before October 1, 2013 will be able to file their permanent resident applications, almost 2 years earlier than under the earlier system.

UPDATE: On September 25, 2015 USCIS and DOS issued a revised visa bulletin which supersedes the bulletin issued on September 9, 2015.  For more details on the official announcement please read our D&S summary.