The Department of State has just issued the October 2018 Visa Bulletin.  This is the first Visa Bulletin of Fiscal Year 2019.  This blog post analyzes this month’s Visa Bulletin.  

The USCIS is allowing Adjustment of Status filings based off of Table B, Dates of Filing.  If you are physically in the US, you can file your I-485 on October 1, if your priority date is earlier than the date in Table B.

October 2018 Visa Bulletin

Table A: Final Action Dates — Applications with these dates may be approved for their Green Card (Permanent Residency card) or Immigrant Visa appointment.

EB 
Class 
All Other  
CHINA       
INDIA     
MEXICO   
PHIL’PNES    
EB-1
01APR17
01JUN16
01JUN16
01APR17
01APR17
EB-2
C
01APR15
26MAR09 
C
C
EB-3
 C
01JUN15
01JAN09 
C 

01JUN17    

Table B: Dates for Filing — The DOS may work on applications with these dates. But the Visa cannot be approved until the date is current per Table A.


EB 
Class 
All Other  
CHINA       
INDIA     
MEXICO   
PHIL’PNES    
EB-1
01JUN18
01OCT17
01OCT17
01JUN18
01JUN18
EB-2
C
15JUN15
22MAY09 
C
C
EB-3
C 
08AUG15
01OCT09 
C 

01JUL17       

MU Law Analysis (all references are to Table A unless noted)


All Other, Mexico:  EB2 and EB3 returned to current, as we expected.  They should stay current for most/all of FY2019.

China: The EB2 and EB3 dates moved into CY2015.  Our sense is that these dates will stay in 2015, slowly improving over this Fiscal Year.

India: These dates moved back into 2009, again as expected. We expect to steady progress in both categories in FY2019. 

Philippines: The fact that the EB-3 Final Action date stayed in 2017 is a terrific sign, indicating that there may be fewer immigrant visas in the pipeline than we had expected.  Over the course of FY2019, we should eventually see the EB-3 priority date extend into CY2018, both in Tables A and B.