The Department of State has justissued the October 2020 Visa Bulletin. This is the first VisaBulletin of Fiscal Year 2021. This blog post analyzes this month’s VisaBulletin.
October 2021Visa Bulletin
Table A: Final Action Dates— Applications with these dates may be approved for their Green Card(Permanent Residency card) or Immigrant Visa appointment.
|
Employment- |
All Other |
CHINA |
INDIA |
PHILIPPINES |
|
1st |
C |
01JUN18 |
01JUN18 |
C |
|
2nd |
C |
01MAR16 |
01SEP09 |
C |
|
3rd |
C |
01JUL17 |
15JAN10 |
C |
Table B: Dates of Filing
The USCIS has just announced that it will allow the more favorable Date of Filing chart for I-485 Adjustment of Status. This means that all employment based immigrants in EB-1, EB-2 or EB-3 can file their I-485s starting October 1, 2020. However if they are natives of India or China, their priority date must be earlier than these dates:
MU Law Analysis
This was the Visa Bulletinthat we have been expecting forsome time. Because of the State Department’s inability to issues immigrant visasfor much of 2020, there are many, many immigrant visas that are now part ofallocation for the new fiscal year.
Both the Philippines andWorldwide (All Other) EB-3 have become current. We expect these categories to stay currentfor the foreseeable future. The onlyconstraint to the Philippine EB-3 visas being issued is the capacity at theEmbassy in Manila.
The good news extended toIndia. India EB-1, EB-2 and EB-3all moved forward, about 3-5 months in all of these categories. Similarly, China EB-1, EB-2 andEB-3 all moved forward at about the same rates as India. We do not expect a retrogression in thesecategories.