Business Immigration Insights

The Visa Bulletin is released monthly by the Department of State and is used to determine when a sponsored foreign national can submit the final step of the green card process. The complete visa bulletin can be found here.

Below is a summary of the October Visa Bulletin, including Final Action Dates and changes from the previous month:

• China: EB-1 returns to current, EB-2 moves ahead one week to May 22, 2013, and EB-3 returns to the new normal, outpacing EB-2 and jumping ahead two years to January 1, 2014
• India: EB-1 returns to current, EB-2 creeps ahead four weeks to September 15, 2008, and EB-3 remains stalled at October 15, 2006
• Philippines: EB-2 returns to current and EB-3 moves ahead one month to December 1, 2015
• All Other Countries: EB-2 joins EB-3 as current

PLEASE NOTE: USCIS has not yet announced if it will accept I-485 applications in October based on the Department of State’s Dates for Filing chart. However, the trend over the last several months has been to NOT honor the Dates for Filing chart, and instead only accept I-485 applications based on the Final Action Dates as listed above.