August Visa Bulletin Significant Advances in Employment Based Categories

In the August 2020 visa bulletin, there is significant advances in most employment visa categories. In EB-1, China advanced almost six months to February 8, 2018, India advanced nine month to February 8, 2018. EB-2 for China advanced two months to January 15, 2016. EB-3 for all countries have advanced almost a full year to April 1, 2019. China has advanced eight months to February 15, 2017, and India has advanced 4 months to October 1, 2009. EB-5 for China has advanced two weeks to August 8, 2015 and Vietnam has advanced by more than two months to July 22, 2017.

Every year, Congress sets limits on the number of immigrant visas that can be issued each year. In order to adjust status to that of a legal permanent resident, also known as a Green Card holder, an immigrant visa must be available to the applicant both at the time of filing and at the time of adjudication. No one country in the category is allowed to exceed more than 7% of the visas allowed.  For applicants from countries that have exceeded the 7% allowance, a “visa retrogression” (or wait-list) is applied to the country. For more information on options if you are currently retrogressed, please click here and here. USCIS recently changed its adjudicating procedure to adjudicate petitions from countries that are not currently retrogressed first before the retrogressed countries. For more information, please click here. This would mean that wait times for these countries will only increase. Please click here to learn more about children aging out.