United States: January 2024 Visa Bulletin – Significant Movement for EB-1 India and EB-5 India, Strong Movement Across Most Other Employment-Based Categories

According to the State Department’s January Visa Bulletin, Final Action cutoff dates for issuance of an immigrant visa or approval of an adjustment of status application will be as follows: 

• EB-1: India will advance by three years and eight months, to September 1, 2020. China will advance by four and a half months, to July 1, 2022. All other countries will continue to be current.
• EB-2: India will advance by two months, to March 1, 2012, and China will advance by approximately nine weeks, to January 1, 2020. The remaining countries will advance three and a half months, to November 1, 2022.
• EB-3 Professionals and Skilled Workers: China will advance by seven months and one week, to September 1, 2020, and India will advance by one month, to June 1, 2012. The remaining countries will advance by eight months, to August 1, 2022.
• EB-5: For the EB-5 Unreserved categories (C5, T5, I5, and R5), India will advance by almost two years, to December 1, 2020, and China will advance by nine weeks, to December 8, 2015. All other countries will remain current. The EB-5 set-aside categories (Rural, High Unemployment, and Infrastructure) will also remain current.

The January Visa Bulletin Dates for Filing chart also shows strong movement in some key employment-based categories. For EB-1, the India Date for Filing will advance by 18 months, to January 1, 2021, while China will advance by five months, to January 1, 2023. The EB-2 China Date for Filing will advance by five months to June 1, 2020 (please note that the State Department webpage version of the Visa Bulletin erroneously repeats last month’s EB-2 China date; the official Visa Bulletin is the pdf linked in this client alert), while India will remain at May 15, 2012. The remaining EB-2 countries will advance by six weeks to February 15, 2023. EB-3 Dates for Filing will remain the same as last month, except for the China Professional/Skilled Worker category, which will advance by 10 months, to July 1, 2021.

In the coming days, USCIS will announce on its own Visa Bulletin web page whether the agency will accept adjustment of status applications based on the Visa Bulletin Final Action Dates chart or the Dates for Filing chart in January.