March 2008 Visa Bulletin : EB3 Movement
Posted Feb 15, 2008
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The U.S. Department of State (DOS) has issued the Visa Bulletin for March 2008. The Visa Bulletin holds good news for EB3 in what is referred to as the "worldwide" category. Worldwide means all countries of chargeability other than China, India, Mexico, and the Philippines. Additionally, the Visa Bulletin shows a bit of forward movement in the cutoff dates for EB3 categories for the listed countries. EB2 China also is seeing forward movement. The EB2 India category continues to be unavailable. Categories that were previously current remain current. The latest Visa Bulletin chart is always available on MurthyDotCom.
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Summary of Visa Bulletin
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Employment-Based, First Preference (EB1)
The EB1 category remains current for all countries of chargeability.
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Employment-Based, Second Preference (EB2)
The EB2 category continues to be current for worldwide, Mexico, and the Philippines. The cutoff date for China moved forward by 11 months, to December 1, 2003. Visa numbers for EB2, India, continue to be unavailable.
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Employment-Based, Third Preference (EB3)
The cutoff date for the EB3, worldwide category, as well as the Philippines, moved forward quite significantly, to January 1, 2005. This represents a jump in excess of two years. China moved forward by more than a year, to December 1, 2002. India's cutoff date improved by several months, to August 1, 2001. The smallest improvement was experienced by Mexico, with just a few days' advancement to May 1, 2001. Other workers from all countries of chargeability now have a cutoff date of January 1, 2002.
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Employment-Based, Fourth / Fifth / Religious Workers and Targeted Employment  (EB4 and EB5)
The EB4, EB5, religious workers, and the targeted employment categories are all current.
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Explanation and Prediction
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The explanation for advancing the cutoff dates in the categories designated above is that this is to avoid a surplus of unused immigrant visa numbers at the end of the 2008 fiscal year. Advancing visa numbers expands the possible universe of pending cases that are eligible for approval of the "green card" (lawful permanent resident status). If the usage of immigrant visa numbers increases with the forward movement of dates, the DOS may slow or stop the forward movement trend until the start of the next fiscal year, which is October 2008.