April 2013 Visa Bulletin – EB-2 India Remains Unchanged at September 1, 2004

The U.S. State Department has just released the April 2013 Visa Bulletin which is the seventh Visa Bulletin for the FY2013 fiscal year.   The major headline in the upcoming month’s Visa Bulletin is the lack of movement (again) in EB-2 India.   Many have been looking forward to this Visa Bulletin in order to gauge the anticipated rate of the forward movement in EB-2 India over the next months; unfortunately, it seems that EB-2 India may continue to face a very slow (if any) forward movement over the next months.  There is continued notable forward movement in EB-3 China of almost two months.

Summary of the April 2013 Visa Bulletin – Employment-Based (EB)

Below is a summary of the April 2013 Visa Bulletin with respect to employment-based petitions:

• EB-1 remains current across the board.
• EB-2 for ROW, Mexico and Philippines are all current.    EB-2 India remains unchanged, again, at (the severely retrogressed) September 1, 2004.   EB-2 China moves forward by six (6) weeks to April 1, 2008.
• EB-3 ROW and EB-3 Mexico move forward by two (2) months to July 1, 2007.  EB-3 Philippines moves forward by only one (1) week to September 8, 2006, EB-3 China  moves forward by three (3)  months to April 22, 2007, while EB-3 India  moves forward by only two (2) weeks to December 8, 2002.
• The “other worker” category moves forward by twp (2) months for ROW and Mexico to July 1, 2007.  It moves forward by one (1) week to September 8, 2006 for Philippines and moves forward (after months without change) by seven (7) weeks at August 21, 2003 for China.  It moves forward by two (2) weeks for India to December 8, 2002.

Summary of the April 2013 Visa Bulletin – Family-Based (FB)

Below is a summary of the April 2013 Visa Bulletin with respect to family-based petitions:

• FB-1 continues to move forward.  FB-1 ROW, China and India all move forward by three (3) weeks to March 8, 2006.   FB-1 Mexico moves forward by only one (1) week to August 1, 1993 and FB-1 Philippines moves forward by four (4) months to February 15, 1999.
• FB-2A moves forward by three (3) weeks to December 15, 2010 for ROW, China, India, and Philippines.  FB-2A Mexico moves forward by two (2) weeks to December 1, 2010.
• FB-2B ROW, China and India all move forward by five (5) weeks to April 8, 2005.  FB-2B Mexico moves forward by five (5) weeks to February 22, 1993 while FB-2B Philippines moves forward by five (5) weeks to July 15, 2002.

Again: No Progress in EB-2 India – Confirms Our Expectations for a Very Slow Forward Movement in the Future?

Yes, we realize we are repeating what we have been reporting over the past several months, but again this month the EB-2 India cutoff dates remain unchanged.     We are well into the second half of the fiscal year, and the continued lack of any movement in EB-2 India this month is a strong indication that there is simply too high of a demand in the EB-2 India category and that the Department of State would move the cutoff dates forward very slowly in order to allow USCIS to approve the (high) number of EB-2 cases filed and pending.

The movements (or the lack thereof) reflected in the April 2013 Visa Bulletin confirm the predictions and the comments made by Mr. Charles Oppenheim, the Chief of the Visa Control and Reporting Division at the U.S. Department of State we shared last week.   The lack of movement in EB-2 India confirms Mr. Oppenheim’s comments that EB-2 India is not expected to move over the next months; in fact, a retrogression is possible in this category.

Visa Bulletin Predictions – Employment-Based

We would like to share recent comments by Mr. Oppenheim on the expectations for movement of visa numbers over the next few months.   Please note that these are short-term predictions and depending on the number of applications as a result of the next few months’ visa numbers, the rate of cutoff date movement may change.

EB-1.   This category is expected to remain current throughout the fiscal year.

EB-2 Rest of World (ROW).  This category is expected to remain current throughout the fiscal year; however, Mr. Oppenheim suggested that depending on demand he may introduce a cutoff date towards the end of the fiscal year, not unlike what happened during the summer of 2012.

EB-2 India. No forward movement expected; possible retrogression.

EB-2 China.   Three-to-six weeks per month.

EB-3 Rest of World (ROW).    Four-to-six weeks per month.

EB-3 China.  Two-to-three months per month.

EB-3 India.  Up to two weeks per month.

EB-3 Mexico.  Four-to-six weeks per month.

EB-3 Philippines.   Up to one week per month.

Further Updates and News

We invite you to subscribe to our free weekly immigration newsletter to receive timely updates on this and related topics.  We also invite you to contact us if our office can be of any assistance in your immigration matters or you have any questions or comments about the April 2013 Visa Bulletin.  Finally, if you already haven’t, please consider our Visa Bulletin Predictions tool which provides personalized predictions and charts helping you understand when a particular priority date may become current and what are the movement patterns.