July 2016 Visa Bulletin and Check-In with DOS
The Department of State (DOS) released the July visa bulletin recently and Charlie Oppenheim, the person at the DOS who is in charge of the visa bulletin also updated the American Immigration Lawyer’s Association on what further movement or backlogs can be expected in the near future.
For family based cases, there was not much movement at all. Below is a table showing the movement.
| Family Based | All Chargeability Areas Except Those Listed | China – Mainland Born | India | Mexico | Philippines |
| F1 | 2 Months | 2 Months | 2 Months | 2 Weeks | 1 month |
| F2A | 1 Week | ! Week | ! Week | None | 1 Week |
| F2B | 2 Weeks | 2 Weeks | 2 Weeks | None | 1 Month |
| F3 | None | None | None | None | 1 Month |
| F4 | 1 Month | None | None | None | 1 Month |
For employment based, there was also not a lot of movement. Again, the movement and new dates are listed below:
|
Employ. Based |
All Chargeability Areas Except Those Listed | China – Mainland Born | India | Mexico | Philippines |
| 1st | C | C | C | C | C |
| 2nd | C | None (Jan 1, 2010) | 1 Month (Nov 1, 2004) | C | C |
| 3rd | 2 Weeks (Mar 1, 2016) | None (Jan 1, 2010) | I Month (Oct 22, 2004) | 1 Month (Oct 22, 2004) | 3.5 Months (Feb 15, 2009) |
In terms of future movements, we will look at family based categories first.
FB4- China: For China, the FB-4 category just recently retrogressed and will remain at its current date through July, and perhaps through the rest of the fiscal year (it will depend on usage for FB-1 through FB-3). However it will return to the prior cut off date by November of this year.
FB-4 India: Similar to FB-4 China, FB-4 India recently tracked the FB-4 Worldwide final action date until it retrogressed in June. However, unlike FB-4 China, the final action date for FB-4 India will definitely remain at January 1, 2001, through September. Mr. Oppenheim predicts that FB-4 India will advance to the former July 2003 cutoff date early in the next fiscal year, but expects that recovery to happen more slowly than for FB-4 China. Mr. Oppenheim anticipates that the FB-4 India date will reach late 2002 for October, and may fully recover to July 2003 by the end of the calendar year.
Moving on to employment based categories:
EB-2 and EB-3 China: There will be no forward movement in these categories for the rest of this fiscal year (the fiscal year ends on September 30, 2016). We will have to see what the new fiscal year brings, but hopefully there will be forward movement shortly after the new fiscal year.
EB-2 and EB-3 India: There may be some moderate movement forward in September, but it depends (see next category)
EB-2 Worldwide: It is looking increasingly likely that this category will become unavailable in September. However, since the new fiscal year begins October 1, they will, again, become current on that date.
EB-1 for India and China: Similar to EB-2 Worldwide, these categories will most likely become unavailable in September but go back to current in October.
If you have any questions leave a comment below or send me an email. Please remember, as always, this blog does not offer legal advice. If you need legal advice, consult with a lawyer instead of a blog. Thank you.