Business Immigration Weekly for December 16, 2013

12.16.13

Current Availability

The U.S. Department of State ("DOS") recently released its January 2014 Visa Bulletin which shows the availability of employment-based immigrant visa categories for the month of December and features the following highlights:

The EB-2 China category has advanced one month from November 8, 2008 to December 8, 2008.
The EB-2 India category remains at November 15, 2004 after last month's retrogression of four years.
The EB-3 categories for World, China and Mexico have advanced significantly from October 1, 2011 to April 1, 2012.
The EB-3 India category remains at September 1, 2003.

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 show no further advancement.
EB-3 China: Although this category has advanced significantly it will most likely be retrogressed in the February 2014 Visa Bulletin.
EB-3 for India will show no further advancement.

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:

	Dec 2007	Jun 2008	Aug 2009	Sept 2012	May 2013	Dec 2013	Jan 2014
EB-3 World	09/01/02	03/01/06	U	10/01/06	12/01/07	10/01/11	04/01/12
EB-2 China	01/01/03	04/01/04	10/01/03	U	05/15/08	11/08/08	12/08/08
EB-3 China	10/15/01	03/22/03	U	12/15/05	12/01/07	10/01/11	04/01/12
EB-2 India	01/01/02	04/01/04	10/01/03	U	09/01/04	11/15/04	11/15/04
EB-3 India	05/01/01	11/01/01	U	10/08/02	12/22/02	09/01/03	09/01/03
EB-3 Other Workers	10/01/01	01/01/03	U	10/01/06	12/01/07	10/01/11	04/01/12

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.