September Visa Bulletin: Little Movement Across All Categories

In the September 2020 visa bulletin, there is little movement in most employment visa categories. In EB-1, China and India advanced three weeks to March 1, 2018. EB-2 for China has remained at January 15, 2016 and India has remained at July 8, 2019. EB-3 for all countries have remained at April 1, 2019. China has remained at February 15, 2017, and India has remained at October 1, 2009. EB-5 for China has advanced one week to August 15, 2015 and Vietnam has advanced by one week to August 1, 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.