Visa Bulletin Update: EB-1 India and China Update – Not Good News

Our office has obtained an updated set of expected cutoff date movements over the next several months as we begin the new fiscal year.     Mr. Charles Oppenheim who is the Chief of the Visa Control and Reporting Division for the U.S. Department of State (DOS) (he is the person responsible for the Visa Bulletin) has provided updated explanations and expectations for fiscal year 2019 (FY19) which begins on October 1, 2018.   The main takeaway is that EB-1 India and China will move very slowly, it at all, over the coming months.

EB-1 – Not Good News for India and China

Mr. Oppenheim is pessimistic that the EB-1 Worldwide final action date will advance before the end of this calendar year.  Forward movement is not very likely in November and December but there should be forward movement in early 2019.   Demand is sufficiently high so it is not possible to predict that EB-1 ROW will become current in FY 2019.

There is no advancement of EB-1 China or EB-1 India expected before January 2019 and it is “almost guaranteed” that both categories will be subject to a final action date through the fiscal year.    This is not good news for EB-1 China and India applicants.

EB-2 and EB-3 India – Watch for “Flip”

We continue to monitor possible advancement of EB-3 India where EB-3 India would surpass EB-2 India and which will create favorable conditions for downgrading from EB-2 to EB-3 India.  We will monitor and report on strategies over the coming weeks if it appears that this is going to happen.

Further Updates and News

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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.