June Visa Bulletin: EB-2 China advances 1 full year

May 18, 2015

The June visa bulletin has been released by the Department of State, and contains notable movement in priority date cutoffs for multiple categories:

F-1 Philippines will retrogress 5 years
F-4 Mexico will retrogress 4.5 months
EB-2 China will progress 1 year
EB-2 India will progress 5.5 months
EB-3 China will progress 4 months
EB-3 and Other Workers Philippines will retrogress 2.5 years

All other categories are either static, or will see advancement of between 1-7 weeks. A category-by-category breakdown is below.

Family-Based Preference Categories

Retrogressing: F-1 Philippines (5 years); F-4 Mexico (4.5 months)

No Movement: F-2A Mexico; F-2B China; F-2B India; F-2B All Other; F-3 (all regions);

Advancing less than 1 week: –

Advancing 1-2 Weeks: F-1 China; F-1 India; F-1 Mexico; F-1 All Other;

Advancing 2 weeks – 1 month: F-4 Philippines

Advancing 1-2 months: F-2A China; F-2A India; F-2A Philippines; F-2A All Other; F-4 China; F-4 India; F-4 Mexico

Advancing 2-6 months: –

Advancing 6+ months: –

Employment-Based Preference Categories

Remaining Current: EB-1 (all areas); EB-2 Mexico; EB-2 Philippines; EB-4, Certain Religious Workers, and 5th Targeted (all areas)

Retrogressing: EB-3 Philippines & Other Workers Philippines (2.5 years)

No Movement: –

Advancing less than 1 week: –

Advancing 1-2 Weeks: EB-3 India; Other Workers India

Advancing 2 weeks – 1 month: –

Advancing 1-2 months: EB-3 Mexico; EB-3 Other Workers; Other Workers Mexico; Other Workers All Other

Advancing 2-6 months: EB-3 China; EB-2 India; EB-3 China

Advancing 6+ months: EB-2 China (1 year);

Newly Current: –

Guidance from the Department of State

The DOS provided a lengthy explanation of the retrogressions, but they basically all boil down to: we advanced cutoff dates to generate sufficient demand, and then had to retrogress once that demand materialized:

VISA RETROGRESSION OF MEXICO AND PHILIPPINES CUT-OFF DATES

Mexico:

Family-sponsored Fourth preference: It has been necessary to slightly retrogress this cut-off date to March 1, 1997 in an attempt to hold number use within the annual limit.

Philippines:

Family-sponsored First preference: This cut-off date had been advanced very rapidly during the past year in an effort to generate sufficient demand to fully utilize all available numbers. The resulting increase in demand has required the retrogression of this cut-off date for the month of June, in an attempt to hold number use within the annual limit for this preference category.

Employment-based Third and Third Other Worker preference: Continued heavy applicant demand for numbers has required a second retrogression of these cut-off dates. Further corrective action cannot be ruled out.

Please Note: Applicants entitled to immigrant status become documentarily qualified at their own initiative and convenience. By no means has every applicant with a priority date earlier than a prevailing cut-off date been processed for final visa action. On the contrary, visa allotments are made only on the basis of the total applicants reported documentarily qualified each month, compared with the amount of available numbers under the respective annual limits. For example, during the past month, over 20,000 applicants who have become documentarily qualified in the Family preference categories have priority dates earlier than the cut-off dates established for May. Demand for visa numbers can fluctuate from one month to another, with the inevitable impact on cut-off dates.