The May 2009 Visa Bulletin has been released. Unfortunately, and as expected, all EB-3 categories are now “unavailable.” Also, there is no movement in all EB-2 categories. Here is a summary of the May 2009 Visa Bulletin: EB-1 remains current across the board. EB-2 remains unchanged for all categories - EB-2 ROW (Rest of World) is current, [...]
The Department of Homeland Security’s Office of Immigration Statistics has released its annual U.S. Permanent Residents: 2008 report. The report provides a summary of the approvals of the various types of legal permanent resident (LPR) petitions. According to the report, in 2008, a total of 1,107,126 persons became LPRs. Of these, 58% already lived in [...]
The April 2009 Visa Bulletin has been released. Unfortunately, even though there is some forward movement in some EB categories, the progress is very small and in fact, the dates for some EB-3 categories have retrogressed significantly. EB-1 remains current across the board. EB-2 remains unchanged - EB-2 ROW (Rest of World) is current, EB-2 China remains [...]
USCIS has released some numbers about the student and exchange visitor visa programs. As of December 31, 2008, there were 1,046,468 active nonimmigrant students, exchange visitors and their dependents. Out of this number, there were a total of 722,272 active F or M students and 94,027 dependents. There were 179,408 J-1 exchange visitors and 50,761 [...]
The February 2009 Visa Bulletin is out. It brings some good forward movement for some employment-based categories. Unfortunately, EB-3 ROW and EB-3 India remain unchanged. EB-2 ROW remains current. EB-2 India and EB-2 China both move forward by approximately 6 months. EB-2 India is now at January 1, 2004 while EB-2 China is at January 1, [...]
The January 2009 Visa Bulletin is out. As expected and unfortunately, the forward movement in the employment-based category is very small. EB-2 India has moved a month forward from June 2001 to July 2001. EB-2 China has moved from June 2004 to July 2003. EB-3 India has moved by only 15 days - from October 1, 2001 [...]
The November 2008 Visa Bulletin is out. There are no surprises, although for many foreign nationals, who have an employment-based petition filed and pending, the update would not bring much joy. If we could sum the results of the November 2008 Visa Bulletin, it would be “slow forward movement.” According to the State Department (which is [...]
The annual green card lottery, DV-2010, opens today at noon eastern time. The deadline for submission is noon, eastern time, on Monday, December 1, 2008. Although early application does not increase the chances of being selected, we have seen in the past years the lottery site overloaded with web traffic in the last days or [...]
The October 2008 Visa Bulletin is out. Unfortunately, it does not bring much, if any, good news. The most important change in October 2008 is the retrogression of EB-2 India and EB-2 China. Based on predictions of the demand of these categories, the cutoff dates have been moved, effective October 1, 2008, as follows: for [...]
The September 2008 Visa Bulletin has been released by the Department of State. It brings a mix of good and bad news. The good news for EB-2 applicants from India and China continues this month as well - the dates for EB-2 India and EB-2 China moved by two months, from June 1, 2006, to August [...]