Employment-Based Cut-off Date Changes for April Compared to Current Month’s Visa Bulletin
| Preference Category | Chargeability | Change From Last Month’s Visa Bulletin |
| EB-1 | Current Across All Chargeability Areas |
| EB-2 | All Chargeability Areas | Current |
| China | No Change |
| India | Advances 2 weeks |
| Mexico | Current |
| Philippines | Current |
| EB-3 | All Chargeability Areas | No Change |
| China | No Change |
| India | Advances 3 weeks |
| Mexico | No Change |
| Philippines | Advances 3¼ months |
Relevant U.S. State Department Commentary
D. VISA AVAILABILITY IN THE COMING MONTHS
FAMILY-SPONSORED:
CHINA F4: The level of applicant demand being received has begun to increase. Should this pattern continue, it will be necessary to either hold or retrogress this final action date in late summer. That action would be necessary to hold number use within the overall China Family-sponsored annual limit.
INDIA F4: The amount of demand being reported for applicants with priority dates which are significantly earlier than the established cut-off date has increased dramatically in recent months. As a result, it is likely that this final action date will be retrogressed, possibly as early as June. This action would be necessary to hold number use within the overall India Family-sponsored annual limit.
EMPLOYMENT-BASED:
CHINA E3: There has been an extremely large increase in Employment Third preference applicant demand in recent weeks. This is likely due to the “downgrading” of status by applicants who had originally filed in the Employment Second preference. This has resulted in the Third preference final action date being held for the month of May. Continued heavy demand for numbers will require a retrogression of this date for June to hold number use within the FY-2016 annual limit.
During the past month, there have been extremely high levels of Employment-based demand in most categories for cases filed with U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services for adjustment of status. If this sudden and unanticipated change in the demand pattern continues, it could impact final action dates in the coming months and possibly require corrective action in some.