United States: Immigration Priority Dates
United States
Priority date cut-offs in the third employment-based immigrant category will advance substantially for most countries, but will move forward more modestly for China and will be unchanged for India.
The Department of State has released the September Visa Bulletin, its projection of immigrant visa availability for the last month of Fiscal Year 2010. In September, priority date cut-offs for nearly all employment-based preference categories will once again advance. In some cases, these advancements exceed the State Department’s earlier projections of employment-based immigrant visa availability through the end of the current fiscal year.
In the employment-based second-preference (EB-2) category, priority dates will advance by just over seven weeks for China and India, to May 8, 2006, and will remain current for all other countries. In the employment-based third preference (EB-3) subcategory for professionals and skilled workers, cut-off dates will advance by six and one-half months for most countries, to December 15, 2004, and one month for China, to October 22, 2003, but will be unchanged for India, at January 1, 2002, and remain unavailable for Mexico. In the EB-3 other worker subcategory, priority dates will advance just over 10 months for most countries, to March 22, 2003, but will remain at January 1, 2002 for India and will be continue to be unavailable for Mexico. All other employment-based categories remain current.
In September 2010, priority date cut-offs for employment-based immigrant categories will be as follows:
EB-1
Current for all countries.
EB-2
China – May 8, 2006.
India – May 8, 2006.
All other countries – current.
EB-3
China – October 22, 2003.
India – January 1, 2002.
Mexico – Unavailable.
All other countries – December 15, 2004.
EB-3 Other Workers
India – January 1, 2002.
Mexico – Unavailable.
All other countries – March 22, 2003.
EB-5
Current for all subcategories and countries.