Each month, the American Immigration Lawyers Association's Department of State (DOS) Liaison Committee checks in with Charlie Oppenheim, the Chief of the Visa Control and Reporting Division at DOS for updates about Visa Bulletin progress. During these meetings, Charlie analyzes trends and offers predictions on visa processing. Here are some highlights from his analysis that was shared with AILA. Though there are reduced processing from the Department of State and USCIS due to COVID-19, they are working closely to process applications that can be finalized this fiscal year.
Below are some of Charlie's projections for the employment-based preference categories for the coming months. Looking at Chart A (Final Action Dates; as of now we are still waiting for USCIS determination on whether to use Chart A or Chart B), some categories remained the same while others inched ahead. No visa retrogression for any employment category!
- EB-1 India moves ahead to 01MAR18
- EB-2 India remains the same at 08JUL09
- EB-3 India remains the same at 01OCT09
- EB-5 India remains CURRENT
- EB-3 and Other Workers Philippines remains the same at 01APR19
- EB-1 China moves ahead a month to 01MAR18
- EB-2 China remains the same at 15JAN16
- EB-3 China remains the same at 15FEB17
- EB-5 China moves forward a week to 15AUG15
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