The Department of State (DOS) issued its November 2008 Visa Bulletin, announcing little change from the October 2008 bulletin. The cutoff date for the employment-based second preference (EB-2) category will be June 1, 2004 for China and June 1, 2003 for India. This is only a two-month forward movement from the current wait period. EB-2 numbers for all other countries will remain current. The third employment-based permanent resident (EB-3) category will see wait periods decrease by just a few months. The employment-based first preference (EB-1) category will remain current for all countries. Visa numbers for certain religious workers will become unavailable on November 1, 2008.
The level of demand for green cards by the United States Citizenship & Immigration Services (USCIS) shows that they have a significant amount of cases with priority dates that are earlier than the established cut-offs for November 2008. This is likely to result in slow forward movement of the cut-off dates for most employment categories during the next few months. Sudden changes in the USCIS demand patterns could result in fluctuations in the monthly cut-off dates, and retrogression during FY2009 is possible. Foreign nationals with priority dates earlier than the cut-off dates below, or where noted as "current", may file, or be approved, for an adjustment of status application in the month of November 2008. They may also be approved for an immigrant visa abroad:
| EB-1 Worldwide: | Current | |
| EB-2 Worldwide (excluding China and India): | Current | |
| EB-2 China: | June 1, 2004 (forward movement of 2 months) | |
| EB-2 India: | June 1, 2003 (forward movement of 2 months) | |
| EB-3 Worldwide (excluding China, India, Mexico and the Philippines): | May 1, 2005 (forward movement of 4 months) | |
| EB-3 China: | February 1, 2002 (forward movement of 4 months) | |
| EB-3 India: | October 1, 2001 (forward movement of 3 months) | |
| EB-3 Mexico: | September 1, 2002 (forward movement of 2 months) | |
| EB-3 Philippines: | May 1, 2005 (forward movement of 4 months) |
We will provide further information as soon as it becomes available.
The full November 2008 Visa Bulletin is available at the link below:
http://travel.state.gov/visa/frvi/bulletin/bulletin_4371.html
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