817-877-2805

600 W. 6th St., Ste 300

Fort Worth, Texas 76102

SEPTEMBER 2019 VISA BULLETIN NEWS

Even though the September Visa Bulletin indicates cut-off dates for the EB-3 category, the State Department has advised that the entire EB-3 category is now “unavailable” for the remainder of FY2019.

Department of State’s Charlie Oppenheim provides the following analysis of the September Visa Bulletin.

· EB-1 and EB-2 categories could become “unavailable” at any time before the end of the fiscal year.

· We should not expect any of the EB-1 categories to become current at any time in the foreseeable future. Hopefully the EB-1 Worldwide and EB-1 China dates will revert to where they were in July 2019, it is possible they will not fully recover. EB-1 India and EB-1 China may not recover for the foreseeable future.

· Nothing too significant of note for the family-based categories.

· Unlike the other employment-based preference categories, the demand trends for EB-2 are such that Charlie is more confident that the Final Action Dates for this category (i.e., EB-2 Worldwide, including EB-2 El Salvador, Guatemala and Honduras, EB-2 Mexico, EB-2 Philippines, and EB-2 Vietnam) will be able to recover to current in either October or November 2019.

· Charlie is unable to say when EB-2 Worldwide, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Mexico, Philippines and Vietnam will again be current.

Further, per USCIS, adjustment of status applicants in the F2A category may file in September using the Final Action Dates for September. All other family-based preference categories must use the Dates for Filing chart.

For Employment-Based Preference filings, the Final Action Dates chart must be used for September adjustment of status filings.

Skip to content