The Department of State has just issued the February2020 Visa Bulletin. This is the fifth VisaBulletin of Fiscal Year 2021. This blog post analyzes this month’s VisaBulletin.
Visa Bulletin
Table A: Final Action Dates — Applications with these dates may beapproved for their Green Card (Permanent Residency card) or Immigrant Visaappointment.
|
Employment- |
All Other |
CHINA |
INDIA |
PHILIPPINES |
|
1st |
C |
01JAN20 |
01JAN20 |
C |
|
2nd |
C |
15JUN16 |
12OCT09 |
C |
|
3rd |
C |
01JAN18 |
01APR10 |
C |
Table B: Dates of Filing
The USCIS will be using the Table A: Final Action Dates chart forI-485 employment-based filings. A beneficiary must be current on the aboveTable A chart in order to file their I-485, Adjustment of Status applications.
MU Law Analysis
Both the Philippines and Worldwide (All Other) EB-3 continueto be current. Our opinion remains thatthese categories will stay current for the foreseeable future. This month’s Visa Bulletin included a noteconfirming that these categories will stay current at least through May, whichis the furthest projection that the DOS will make, i.e. 3 months into thefuture.
India EB-1 moved ahead 3.5 more months, after six months in December and fivemonths in January. Unfortunately, India EB-2 and EB-3 each movedahead by only about two weeks. Theseslow progressions, along with the large number of India EB-2 and EB-3 filingsin October, November, and December, probably means that we should only expect1-4 week movements in India EB-2 or EB-3 for at least the rest of 2021. This month’s Visa Bulletin included a noteconfirming that the EB-2 and EB-3 categories should move two weeks on averagethrough the May Visa Bulletin.
China EB-2 and EB-3 again both moved forward by a few weeks, a trend that shouldcontinue. China EB-1 showed more progress than expected, perhaps becauseof declining rates of visa issuance out of the American posts in China. This month’s Visa Bulletin included a notethat says that EB-2 and EB-3 should move 2-3 weeks on average through the MayVisa Bulletin.