The last couple of Visa Bulletins released by USCIS saw several ups and downs for most of the visa categories, in both the family and employment sections. However, this always came with the disclaimer from USCIS that most, if not all retrogressed categories would bounce back to initial cut-off dates seen around July and August.

With the exception of China EB-1, 2 and 3 and EB-1 & 3 India, October’s Visa Bulletin does show that the dates reverted to the dates in July’s visa bulletin. In other primary categories, the ones most affected was China and India with an EB-2 and EB-1 retrogression of two years to January 1, 2015 respectively. The following cut off dates for issuance of an immigrant visa to Indian applicants will be operational according to the October 2019 visa bulletin –

Great News for Adjustment of Status Applicants!

As promised by USCIS earlier, all Adjustment of Status (AoS) applicants will have the advantage of utilizing the Filing Eligibility Dates rather than the Final Action Dates. Given that, these have progressed more than the Final Action Dates, it is something to look forward to when filing for adjustment of status.

What to Expect in the Coming Months?

As predictions go, India and China are expecting little change overall. While India sees minimal to no movement in all employment categories, China EB-2 China might move up by two months. All other countries will either remain current or have an upward push by three months. This is just an estimated projection based on visa availability until January 2020 after which the numbers are expected to fluctuate again. Especially with the new H1-B pre-registration system for H1B visas starting in Yr. 2020, the number of new H1B applications could dwindle for the 85,000-lottery cap.

For an evaluation in date changes between October’s visa bulletin and the previous visa bulletins, Trackitt provides a chart that allows you to do a detailed comparison in final action dates.