The March 2024 Visa Bulletin has been released. Following the footsteps of its predecessors, March 2024’s Visa Bulletin brings news of large positive shifts all across the board. This month, we are seeing a plethora of large shifts in priority dates, including those in categories that didn’t see any shifts for many bulletin announcements. While the February 2024 Visa Bulletin brought a few positive shifts as it piggybacked of off the January 2024 Visa Bulletin, the March 2024 Visa Bulletin brings news of major shifts once again.
In our March 2024 Visa Bulletin Predictions article, we worried that the Bulletin has a high possibility of seeing little to no shift, or even a negative shift. However, we also predicted the possibility of the March 2024 Visa Bulletin joining the trend set by the two Bulletin announcements that came before it and bringing a slew of positive date changes with it. What we did not see coming was the large amount of changes this Visa Bulletin brought.
In January 2024’s Visa Bulletin, we saw a lot of movement across multiple categories. Then, in February 2024’s Bulletin, we saw a few more positive shifts, mostly in the same categories that faced changes in January 2024’s Visa Bulletin. We did not expect the March 2024 Visa Bulletin to have as high a volume of changes as it does.
Seeing movement this month in addition to the major shifts from the last two months is a great sign that the USCIS is maximizing their efficiency. In bulletin announcements of the years prior, it was not often that we saw consecutive positive shifts, and that too of this magnitude. However, the Visa Bulletin announcements of 2024 have brought us an abundance of positive shifts, reflecting the active efforts the USCIS has been making to decrease the gap between the growing visa demand and the supply while being mindful of their processing capabilities.
The USCIS has been working hard to implement new, efficient systems both for applicants and themselves as to make visa processing as simple and pain-free as possible.
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Let’s take a look at the results of the March 2024 Visa Bulletin.
March 2024 Visa Bulletin Results
Here are the results of the March 2024 Visa Bulletin and the priority date changes for both family and employment-based categories.
Family-based
Final Action Date
- F1 All Other Chargeable Areas – January 1, 2015 to February 8, 2015 +1 month & 8 days
- F1 China- January 1, 2015 to February 8, 2015 +1 month & 8 days
- F1 India – January 1, 2015 to February 8, 2015 +1 month & 8 days
- F2A All Other Chargeable Areas – February 8, 2020 to June 22, 2020 +4 months & 14 days
- F2A China – February 8, 2020 to June 22, 2020 +4 months & 14 days
- F2A India – February 8, 2020 to June 22, 2020 +4 months & 14 days
- F2A Mexico – February 1, 2020 to June 15, 2020 +4 months & 14 days
- F2A Philippines – February 8, 2020 to June 22, 2020 +4 months & 14 days
- F2B All Other Chargeable Areas – October 1, 2015 to November 22, 2015 +1 month & 21 days
- F2B China – October 1, 2015 to November 22, 2015 +1 month & 21 days
- F2B India – October 1, 2015 to November 22, 2015 +1 month & 21 days
- F3 All Other Chargeable Areas – April 22, 2009 to October 1, 2009 +5 months & 9 days
- F3 China – April 22, 2009 to October 1, 2009 +5 months & 9 days
- F3 India – April 22, 2009 to October 1, 2009 +5 months & 9 days
- F4 All Other Chargeable Areas – May 22, 2007 to June 8, 2007 +2 months & 17 days
- F4 China – May 22, 2007 to June 8, 2007 +2 months & 17 days
- F4 India – November 15, 2005 to December 15, 2005 +1 month
- F4 Mexico – September 15, 2000 to October 15, 2000 +1 month
- F4 Philippines – October 15, 2002 to June 15, 2003 +8 months
Date of Filing Application
- No changes
Employment-based
Final Action Date
- EB1 India – September 1, 2020 to October 1, 2020 +1 month
- EB2 All Other Chargeable Area – November 15, 2022 to November 22, 2022 +7 days
- EB2 Mexico – November 15, 2022 to November 22, 2022 +7 days
- EB2 Philippines – November 15, 2022 to November 22, 2022 +7 days
- EB3 All Other Chargeable Area – September 1, 2022 to September 8, 2022 + 7 days
- EB3 Mexico – September 1, 2022 to September 8, 2022 +7 days
- EB3 Philippines – September 1, 2022 to September 8, 2022 +7 days
- Other Workers All Other Chargeable Areas – September 1, 2022 to September 8, 2022 +7 days
- Other Workers Mexico – September 1, 2022 to September 8, 2022 +7 days
- EB4 All Other Chargeable Areas – May 15, 2019 to December 1, 2019 +8 months & 16 days
- EB4 China – May 15, 2019 to December 1, 2019 +8 months & 16 days
- EB4 India – May 15, 2019 to December 1, 2019 +8 months & 16 days
- EB4 Mexico – May 15, 2019 to December 1, 2019 +8 months & 16 days
- EB4 Philippines – May 15, 2019 to December 1, 2019 +8 months & 16 days
- Certain Religious Workers All Other Chargeable Categories – May 15, 2019 to December 1, 2019 +8 months & 16 days
- Certain Religious Workers China – May 15, 2019 to December 1, 2019 +8 months & 16 days
- Certain Religious Workers India – May 15, 2019 to December 1, 2019 +8 months & 16 days
- Certain Religious Workers Mexico – May 15, 2019 to December 1, 2019 +8 months & 16 days
- Certain Religious Workers Philippines – May 15, 2019 to December 1, 2019 +8 months & 16 days
Date of Filing Application
- EB4 All Other Chargeable Areas – September 1, 2019 to January 1, 2020 +4 months
- EB4 China – September 1, 2019 to January 1, 2020 +4 months
- EB4 India – September 1, 2019 to January 1, 2020 +4 months
- EB4 Mexico – September 1, 2019 to January 1, 2020 +4 months
- EB4 Philippines – September 1, 2019 to January 1, 2020 +4 months
- Certain Religious Workers All Other Chargeable Areas – September 1, 2019 to January 1, 2020 +4 months
- Certain Religious Workers China – September 1, 2019 to January 1, 2020 +4 months
- Certain Religious Workers India – September 1, 2019 to January 1, 2020 +4 months
- Certain Religious Workers Mexico – September 1, 2019 to January 1, 2020 +4 months
- Certain Religious Workers Philippines – September 1, 2019 to January 1, 2020 +4 months
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Is There a Uprising Trend?
Despite seeing major shifts in the January 2024 Visa Bulletin as well as a few positive shifts in high demand categories in the February 2024 Visa Bulletin, many categories and countries saw their priority dates take major leaps for the better for March 2024. As we briefly mentioned earlier, the USCIS is seeing large increases in visa demand in the past year. It is clear that the efforts to increase efficiency and visa processing is a priority for the USCIS as they have been announcing countless new protocols and system changes to make the visa granting process smoother for every party involved in the matter. It is not a complete surprise that the USCIS is increasing its capacity for processing as their efficiency goes up.
To build on a point we mentioned before, three make a trend and it is safe for us to note that the 2024 Visa Bulletin announcements are bringing a trend of Visa Bulletin announcements that report only positive changes in priority dates. The March 2024 Visa Bulletin, like its predecessors, brought only news of positive shifts across the board.
As the USCIS continues to increase its processing efficiency, keep an out for any announcements in the coming weeks about more changes to the visa filing and processing system, especially in categories that were affected in the March 2024 Visa Bulletin. It will not be a surprise if the USCIS continues to implement positive changes in the coming months.
April 2024 Visa Bulletin Predictions
It came as a wonderful surprise to all of us that the March 2024 Visa Bulletin reported so many positive date shifts in its announcement, despite following two Bulletins that brought only positive shifts as well.
Reiterating the point we made in the previous section, we are noticing a trend from the recent Visa Bulletin announcements. Positive shifts in priority dates across the board every month. Does it warrant us to have hope that the April 2024 Visa Bulletin will take part in this trend? Should we raise suspicion about the possibility of the USCIS announcing a retrogression in next month’s announcement to combat the numerous positive shifts from the past three months?
As demand for visas increases, it is very evident that the USCIS is taking effective action to accommodate this demand and hone its processing efficiency and capacity.
It would not be smart for us to disregard the possibility of retrogression in the near future. After seeing a slew of positive changes across three months, the April 2024 Visa Bulletin has the possibility of breaking the trend and delivering news of categories that saw shifts in the first three Visa Bulletin announcements of 2024 bearing regressing dates.
With that in mind, there is also room for us to rest easy. The March 2024 Visa Bulletin became the last piece in the upward trend for Visa Bulletin priority dates. Let us hope the April 2024 Visa Bulletin follows suit and the USCIS sees no need to pull back any dates.
Check back soon for our detailed April 2024 Visa Bulletin Predictions article. See the U.S. Department of State website to view the March 2024 Visa Bulletin.