Visa Bulletin : Update and Predictions

The government’s new fiscal year will begin on October 1st, and as usual, there will be some significant advances in priority dates for green cards, particularly in the employment-based categories.

Employment-Based Categories

The EB-1 category for persons born in India and China will again be current (no backlogs).
The worldwide EB-2 category will again be current and will advance an average of 2 years for India and China.
The worldwide EB-3 category will advance 1 month. China EB-3 will jump forward over 3 years, Philippines by 5 months and India by only 2 weeks.
The worldwide EB-4 category will remain current, with a huge leap forward for various Central American countries.
Worldwide EB-5 also will remain current, but China EB-5 will inch forward by only 1 week. The EB-5 regional center program is due to expire on September 30 and will need to be reauthorized by Congress.

Family-Based Categories

The forward movement in the family-based categories will remain slow. The worldwide categories will advance between 1 and 6 weeks.
However, there are a few notable exceptions.
Mexico 2A will advance by 3 months, China F4 by 4 months and India F4 by almost 2 years.

Predictions for the Near Future

The State Department predicts that India EB-2 will continue to advance up to 4 months each Visa Bulletin and that China EB-2 will move forward by 3 months.
The demand for EB-3 numbers could slow down the forward worldwide movement in the coming fiscal year. India will continue to inch forward by only one week per month (Time to get rid of per-country quotas!). However, China will advance by 3 months at a time and EB-3 Philippines could also see significant advances.
The family-based categories are all severely backlogged and any forward movement will be incremental.