The December 2023 Visa Bulletin has been released, and unfortunately little to no movement has been made in priority dates from the November 2023 Visa Bulletin. The entire family-based visa category for all countries in both the final action date and date for filing charts has remained stagnant. There was slight movement of just 21 days for EB2 and EB3 final action dates for China. India EB2 and EB3 priority dates have remained unchanged since the October 2023 Visa Bulletin.
The lack of movement in priority dates is not a complete surprise considering the fact that the number of available visas for fiscal year 2024 is much lower than the current demand for both family-based and employment-based visas. Additionally, the USCIS and DOS recently reported that they already have enough visa applications in hand to fulfill the current number of available visas for the employment-based category for FY 2024 and beyond. This fact, combined with high demand, is likely a strong contributing factor as to why priority dates are not advancing.
Let’s take a look at the results of the December 2023 Visa Bulletin.
December 2023 Visa Bulletin Results
Here are the results of the December 2023 Visa Bulletin and the priority date changes for both family and employment-based categories.
Family-based
Final Action Date
- No changes
Date of Filing Application
- No changes
Employment-based
Final Action Date
- Certain Religious Workers category now unavailable
- EB2 China – October 1, 2019 to October 22, 2019 +21 days
- EB3 China – January 1, 2020 to January 22, 2020 +21 days
Date of Filing Application
- No changes
Certain Religious Workers Category Becomes Unavailable
The Certain Religious Workers category has now become unavailable in the December 2023 Visa Bulletin. The program was set to expire on November 17, 2023. Currently, legislation has not been passed that would extend this category beyond this expiration date. If legislation is passed, visas under this category will likely be available immediately and will be subject to the same final action dates as the EB4 category for each country.
No visas for Certain Religious Workers have been issued overseas, or final action taken on adjustment of status cases, after midnight on November 16, 2023. If you have a visa under this category, you must have been admitted into the U.S. no later than midnight on November 16, 2023.
January 2024 Visa Bulletin Predictions
For the January 2024 Visa Bulletin, we don’t foresee that key categories such as India EB2 or India EB3 will advance, and we may even see that India EB2 retrogresses to an earlier priority date. With no movement made in the family-based visa categories in the December 2023 Visa Bulletin, it’s hard to say whether or not priority dates in categories under this preference will move forward.
However, it is a possibility has the USCIS continues to process applications and has a better idea of overall demand and current visa usage. Otherwise, we don’t expect to see any significant advancement in priority dates in the January 2024 Visa Bulletin.
Check back soon for our detailed January 2024 Visa Bulletin Predictions article. See the U.S. Department of State website to view the December 2023 Visa Bulletin.
