Business Immigration Weekly for August 14, 2015

8.14.15

September 2015 Visa Bulletin Update

The Department of State (DOS) released the monthly Visa Bulletin and below is a summary of the availability of employment-based immigrant visa categories for the month of September.

The EB-2 India category was retrogressed to January 1, 2006 after it had stalled at October 1, 2008 for several months.
The EB-2 China category retrogressed significantly from December 15, 2013 to January 1, 2006.
The EB-3 India category advances from June 1, 2004 to December 22, 2004.
The EB-3 World and Mexico categories are almost current, advancing from July 15, 2015 to August 15, 2015.
The EB-3 Philippines category sees modest advancement from June 1, 2004 to December 22, 2004.
The EB-3 China category advances slightly from June 1, 2004 to December 22, 2004 after a drastic retrogression in August from 2011 to 2004. The DOS has indicated that this category will advance and may return to 2010 or 2011 at the beginning of the next fiscal year.
The EB-5 China advances three weeks from September 1, 2013 to September 22, 2013.

Comparison to Prior Months

The following is a comparison of priority date movement since the inception of the current retrogression in 2007:

	Dec 2007	Jun 2008	Aug 2009	Sept 2012	Jan 2015	Aug 2015	Sept 2015
EB-3 World	09/01/02	03/01/06	U	10/01/06	06/01/13	07/15/15	08/15/15
EB-2 China	01/01/03	04/01/04	10/01/03	U	02/01/10	12/15/13	01/01/06
EB-3 China	10/15/01	03/22/03	U	12/15/05	03/01/11	06/01/04	12/22/04
EB-2 India	01/01/02	04/01/04	10/01/03	U	02/15/05	10/01/08	01/01/06
EB-3 India	05/01/01	11/01/01	U	10/08/02	12/15/03	06/01/04	12/22/04
EB-3 Other Workers	10/01/01	01/01/03	U	10/01/06	06/01/13	07/15/15	08/15/15