June 2008 Visa Bulletin : Summary
Posted May 16, 2008
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The U.S. Department of State (DOS) has issued the June 2008 Visa Bulletin. The Visa Bulletin remained unchanged in the employment-based categories from the prior month, with the exception of three months of forward movement for India and China in the EB2 category. The Visa Bulletin indicates that EB3 is close to the annual limit. Thus, that category could become unavailable in July, or experience retrogression in the cutoff dates. The latest DOS Visa Bulletin chart is always available on MurthyDotCom.
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Summary of Visa Bulletin for EB Categories
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Employment-Based, First Preference (EB1)
This category remains current for all countries of chargeability.
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Employment-Based, Second Preference (EB2)
The cutoff dates for India and China moved to April 1, 2004. All other countries of chargeability in EB2 continue to be current.
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Employment-Based, Third Preference (EB3)
All cutoff dates in EB3 remained unchanged. Worldwide and the Philippines remain at March 1, 2006. China's cutoff date is March 22, 2003. Mexico continues to have a July 1, 2002 cutoff date and India is also unchanged at November 1, 2001. The EB3 "other worker" category has a cutoff date of January 1, 2003 for every country.
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Employment-Based, Fourth (EB4) / Fifth (EB5) / Religious Workers and Targeted Employment
These categories are all current.
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Explanation
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The cutoff dates had moved forward last month in order to avoid there being unused numbers at the end of the fiscal year. Apparently, this resulted in fairly high levels of usage, since EB3 is expected to be exhausted shortly, and EB2 for India and China move forward, but only by a few months. We will continue to monitor the DOS Visa Bulletin and advise MurthyDotCom and MurthyBulletin readers as information becomes available.