September 2011 Visa Bulletin – No Movement in EB-2 India/China; FB1 Remains Unchanged for Many; FB2A Advances by Four Months

The U.S. State Department just released the September 2011 Visa Bulletin which is the final Visa Bulletin for the FY2011 fiscal year.    The major headline in the upcoming month’s bulletin is the lack of any movement in the EB-2 China and EB-2 India categories, which have moved significantly over the past few months.  Also, FB2A moves forward by four months.

Summary of the September 2011 Visa Bulletin – Employment-Based (EB)

Below is a summary of the September 2011 Visa Bulletin with respect to employment-based petitions:

• EB-1 remains current across the board.
• EB-2 remains unchanged across the board: EB-2 ROW (Rest of World), Mexico and Philippines remain current while EB-2 China and EB-2 India are unchanged at April 15, 2007.
• EB-3 ROW, EB-3 Mexico and EB-3 Philippines move forward by three (3) weeks to November 22 , 2005, EB-3 China  moves forward by only one (1) week to July 15, 2004, while EB-3 India  moves forward by five (5) weeks to July 8, 2002.
• The “other worker” category remains unchanged at  April 22, 2003 for China and at June 1, 2002 for India.  It moves forward by three (3) months to August 1, 2005 for ROW, Mexico and Philippines.

Summary of the September 2011 Visa Bulletin – Family-Based (FB)

Below is a summary of the September 2011 Visa Bulletin with respect to family-based petitions:

• FB1 remains unchanged (again) for ROW, China and India at May 1, 2004.   It moves forward by one (1) week to March 15, 1993 for Mexico.  It also moves forward by 6.5 months to November 1, 2006 for for Philippines.
• FB2A moves forward by over four (4) months to December 1, 2008 for ROW, China, India, and Philippines.  FB2A Mexico moves forward by less than four (4) months to September 22, 2008.
• FB2B ROW, China and India remains unchanged at July 1, 2003.  FB2B Mexico moves forward by one (1) month to November 1, 1992.  FB2B Philippines moves forward by over (3) months to March 22, 2001.

Slow Movement  for Employment-based Petitions; EB-2 India and EB-2 China Movement Slows Down; Substantial Forward Movement for FB2A; No Movement in FB1

The slow forward movement across many employment categories continues, as expected.   The movement in EB-2 India and China we have seen over the past few months has stopped, most likely due to heavy demand in these categories and due to the fact that this is the last Visa Bulletin for the fiscal year.   Positive news is that EB-3 India has  moved forward by over a month (for a second month in a row).

We continue to see the FB2A category move forward, after the significant retrogression over the past several months – this month by four weeks.   Unfortunately, due to strong demand, FB1 category remains unchanged, for a fourth month in a row, after it retrogressed by 8 months during the April 2011 Visa Bulletin.  This is due to heavy demand in the FB1 category which is expected to continue and further lack of movement (or backward movement) in FB1 is possible.

Further Updates and News

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