September Visa Bulletin: F2A Advances 8 Months Or More; India EB-2 Advances 3+ Months; Philippines EB-2 & EB-3 Advance 10 Months

August 22, 2014

The September Visa Bulletin has been released by the Department of State. Most Family-Based categories will advance a month or more, with F-2 categories moving up 8 months or more. Employment-Based categories were mostly static, except for India’s EB-2 category, which will move up more than 3 months to May 1, 2009, and The Philippines EB-3 and Other Workers categories, which will move up 10 months to April 1, 2011. Additional details, plus the complete visa bulletin charts, are below.

Family-Based

Retrogressing: None

No Movement: F-3 China, F-3 India, F-3 All Other, F-4 China, F-4 India, F-4 All Other

Advancing 1-6 weeks: F-1 China, F-1 India, F-1 All Other, F-2B Mexico, F-3 Mexico, F-3 Philippines, F-4 Mexico, F-4 Philippines

Advancing 6 weeks – 3 months: F-1 Mexico, F-1 Philippines, F-2B All Other, F-2B China, F-2B India, F-2B Philippines

Big advances:

• F-2A China, India, Philippines, and All Other  advance 8 months
• F-2A Mexico advances 13 months

Employment-Based

Retrogressing: None

No Movement: All Other EB-3 and Other Workers, China (all categories), Mexico (all categories), India Eb-3 and Other Workers

Big Advances:

• India EB-2 advances 3+ months
• Philippines EB-3 and Other Workers advance 10 months

 

Future Guidance

The DOS offered hints about the movement of India EB-2 in the coming months:

INDIA Employment-based Second Preference: The use of potentially “otherwise unused” Employment numbers prescribed by Section 202(a)(5) of the Immigration and Nationality Act (INA) has allowed the India Employment Second preference cut-off date to advance very rapidly in recent months. Continued forward movement of this cut-off date during the upcoming months cannot be guaranteed, however, and no assumptions should be made until the dates are formally announced. Once there is a significant increase in India Employment Second preference demand it will be necessary to retrogress the cut-off date, possibly as early as November, to hold number use within the fiscal year 2015 annual limit.

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