DOS
The February 2024 visa bulletin has arrived and there are some changes of note. Before getting to the summary of the current bulletin, here is a little bit about what the Visa Bulletin is and the information it contains. Every person who becomes a permanent resident in the US is
Employment Visas
Below is a recap of what the October 2023 visa bulleting showed in terms of movement in all categories. It should be noted that this is the first visa bulletin for the new 2024 fiscal year. A. FINAL ACTION DATES AND DATES FOR FILING FOR FAMILY-SPONSORED PREFERENCE CASES Family based
USCIS
The biggest take away from this months Visa Bulletin is that there was little, if any movement for any category, except some forward movement for India EB–2 cases. See Below for details. Family Based Visa Dates FB1 - Adult Children (unmarried) of US Citizens: This category stayed at Dec
Adjustment of Status
Overall dates are moving forward, but there are some noticeable categories that are lagging behind and not progressing as much, this includes Employment Based Third Preference which doesn't move forward at all this month. Below is a summary of movement in most categories Family Based Categories F1: Moved
Covid-19
The Department of State announced yesterday that it would begin a phased reopening of Consulates across the world. Please note, they will NOT be reopening all consulates at once, and cannot give specific dates as to when certain consulates will open or not. Each Consulate will announce their plans and
Employment Visas
The biggest news this month is that the EB-1 category came current for Most Countries (but not all). Additionally, the EB-2 category remained current. Otherwise, there was movement but not much in terms of surprises. Mr. Oppenheim did ensure us that the Visa Bulletin is being processed based upon the
Covid-19
This is just an update on what is and is not happening with USCIS, DOS and SEVP during the Covid-19 pandemic. First, it is important to remember that things are changing so current USCIS policy may change very soon. To keep updated with current policies, you can go to the
Adjustment of Status
This past month's Visa Bulletin had some bright spots and not so bright spots. The biggest news is that the EB-2 category remained current and most likely will remain current next month as well. Additionally, the EB-3 category was backlogged worldwide - and will most likely remain that
Employment Visas
Once again the EB-2 category has remained current despite the projections that there could be a backlog (although, as you will see below, we are not yet out of the woods on the EB-2 retrogression as of yet). Below are the movements in most Family and Employment categories as well
Adjustment of Status
Not everyone realizes but there are huge backlogs of cases for employment based immigrant visas. For about 1 year now the EB-1 category (Extra-ordinary Ability, Outstanding Professor and Researchers and Intra-Company Transferees) category has been backlogged about 1 year for most of the world and several years for China and
Adjustment of Status
The Department of State released the January Bulletin as well as an update from Charlie Oppenheim as to usage patterns and what to expect in the future. The biggest surprise was that there was NO backlog for the EB-2 or EB-3 category as predicted. In fact, usage patterns slowed so
Adjustment of Status
For those who may have missed this in my last blog post (See here), there is a potential that the EB-2 category, which includes the National Interest Waiver may no longer be current for ANY country come January 2020. What does this mean? In order to file the I-485 application,