United States: October 2024 Visa Bulletin – China EB-3 Professionals/Skilled Workers Retrogresses, While Most Other Categories Hold Steady or Advance; USCIS to Honor Dates for Filing for Employment-Based Categories

According to the State Department’s October 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: China will advance by one week, to November 8, 2022, and India will remain at February 1, 2022. All other countries will continue to be current.
• EB-2: China will advance by three weeks, to March 22, 2020, and India will remain at July 15, 2012. All other countries will remain at March 15, 2023.
• EB-3 Professionals and Skilled Workers: China will retrogress by five months, to April 1, 2020, which is unusual for the start of a fiscal year, when a new annual allotment of immigrant visas becomes available and annual immigrant visa limits re-set. India will advance by one week, to November 1, 2012, and all other countries will advance by almost two years, to November 15, 2022.
• EB-3 Other Workers: The EB-3 Other Worker subcategory for the Philippines will advance by seven months, to December 1, 2020, and India will advance by one week, to November 1, 2012. Final action dates for all other countries will remain unchanged.
• EB-5: For the EB-5 Unreserved categories (C5, T5, I5, and R5), China will advance by seven months, to July 15, 2016, and India will advance by more than one year, to January 1, 2022. All other countries will remain current. The EB-5 set-aside categories (Rural, High Unemployment, and Infrastructure) will also remain current.

USCIS has announced it will accept applications for adjustment of status based on the Visa Bulletin Dates for Filing chart in October. Some key Dates for Filing in the October bulletin are:       

• EB-1: India will advance by more than two months, to April 15, 2022. China will remain at January 1, 2023, and all other countries will continue to be current.
• EB-2: China will advance by four months, to October 1, 2020, and India will advance by almost six months, to January 1, 2013. The remaining countries will advance by more than four months, to August 1, 2023.
• EB-3 Professionals and Skilled Workers: China will retrogress by about eight months, to November 15, 2020. India will advance by over seven months, to June 8, 2013, and all other countries will advance by one month, to March 1, 2023.
• EB-5: For the EB-5 Unreserved categories (C5, T5, I5, and R5), China will retrogress by three months, to October 1, 2016, and India will remain at April 1, 2022. All other countries will remain current. The EB-5 set-aside categories (Rural, High Unemployment, and Infrastructure) will also remain current.

A full list of the October Dates for Filing can be found below.