Business Immigration Weekly for August 8, 2014

September 2014 Visa Bulletin Update

Current Availability

Today the U.S. Department of State ("DOS") released its September 2014 Visa Bulletin which shows the availability of employment-based immigrant visa categories for the month of September. Below is a summary of the bulletin highlights:

• The EB-2 India category continues advancing significantly from January 22, 2009 in August to May 1, 2009 in September. The DOS predicts in this month's bulletin that once there is a significant demand in this category the dates can retrogress as early as November.
• The EB-3 World category remains at April 1, 2011 has not advanced since June 2014 when the category retrogressed from October 1, 2012.
• The EB-3 China, India and Mexico categories show no advancement from August and remain at November 1, 2008 for China, November 8, 2003 for India and April 1, 2011 for Mexico.
• The EB-2 China category also remains stalled at October 8, 2009.
• The EB-3 Philippines category continues to show rapid advancement from June 1, 2010 in August to April 1, 2011 in September.

Forecasted Availability

The DOS has indicated the following visa availability:

• EB-1 will remain current.
• EB-2: World category will remain current; China will advance three to five weeks; and India will slow its advancement or retrogress in the coming months.

Please note that month-to-month availability of immigrant visas varies and depends on many factors. These forecasts do not guarantee future availability.

Comparison to Prior Months

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

Additional information about the movement of the employment-based immigrant visa priority dates will be contained in our firm's future Immigration Updates when it becomes available.