The Department of State has just issued the June 2017 Visa Bulletin.  This is the ninth Visa Bulletin of Fiscal Year 2017.  This blog post analyzes this month’s Visa Bulletin.

July 2017 Visa Bulletin

Final Action Dates

Applications with these dates may be approved for their Green Card (Permanent Residency card).

EB 
Class 
All Other  
CHINA       
INDIA     
MEXICO   
PHIL’PNES    
EB-1
C
01JAN12
01JAN12 
C
C
EB-2
C 
22MAR13
22JUL08 
C
C
EB-3
08JUN17 
01JAN12
15FEB06 
08JUN17 

15MAY14       
MU Law Analysis

All Other:  The EB-2 has been current for many years.  The EB-3 progression continues to be effectively current.

China (mainland-born):   The DOS instituted a retrogression for China EB-1 with the June Visa Bulletin.  The continued high level of demand for EB-1 numbers for USCIS adjustment of status applicants has required the establishment of a date for June. It is expected that this EB-1 retrogression will last until October 2017. 

The China EB-2 date again moved up, but only a few weeks.  The DOS notes that there has been an extremely large increase in EB-3s during the past month. The China EB-3 date retrogressed.  It is now slower than China EB-2. This was predicted last month.

India:  As with China, India EB-1 now is retrogressed.  It is expected that this EB-1 retrogression will last until October 2017. 

EB-2 India moved up about two weeks.  EB-3 India jumped into 2006, which is a pleasant surprise.  It is not what we expected.  The DOS is clearly trying to ensure that all visa numbers are used in FY2016. 


Mexico: Mirrors All Other in all aspects.

Philippines: EB-3 moved ahead one full year!  The Philippine EB-3 number essentially cleaned out all of the 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, and half of 2014 EB-3 visas in about 7 months.  This is even more positive than we expected.  (Our note from September 2016: “This is consistent with internal MU Law analysis which sees this category progressing into 2013 by the Summer of 2017.”).  

Our internal metrics see the Philippine EB-3 number continuing to progress at a rapid clip for the rest of 2017.