October 2016 Visa Bulletin

09Sep
2016

October 2016 Visa Bulletin

Department of State released the October 2016 visa bulletin. You can access the entire visa bulletin on its website here.

Note: USCIS designated Dates for Filing Family-Sponsored and Employment-Based Visa Application charts (EB1-EB4) for filing Adjustment of Status applications within U.S. for October 2016. For EB5 category, USCIS determined that Adjustment of Status applicants must use the Final Action Dates chart. Please visit the USCIS website for more details.

There were some significant movements in the priority dates with the start of the new fiscal year. Below are some key changes for the employment-based preference categories in October:

Final Action Dates for Employment-Based Preference Cases:

• EB1 China & India became current again, as previously predicted by Department of State. All other EB1 remains current.
• EB2 China moved forward more than 2 years from 1/1/2010 to 2/15/2012. EB2 India moved forward little than than 2 years from 2/22/2005 to 1/15/2007. All other categories became current again.
• EB3 China moved forward almost 3 years from 1/1/2010 to 1/22/2013. EB3 India moved forward about 2 weeks from 2/15/2005 to 3/1/2005. EB3 Philippines moved forward 5 months from 7/1/2010 to 12/1/2010. All other EB3 moved forward 1 month from 5/1/2016 to 6/1/2016.
• EB5 China (non-regional center) moved forward 1 week from 2/15/2014 to 2/22/2014. All other EB5 (non-regional center) remains current.

Final Action Dates for Employment-Based Preference Cases:

• EB1 remains current
• EB2 China retrogressed 3 months from 6/1/2013 to 3/1/2013. EB2 India retrogressed more than 2 months from 7/1/2009 to 4/22/2009. All other EB2 remains current.
• EB3 China retrogressed 1 year from 5/1/2015 to 5/1/2014. EB3 India remains same at 7/1/2009. EB3 Philippines moved forward 8 months from 1/1/2013 to 9/1/2013. All other EB3 remains current.
• EB5 China retrogressed 11 months from 5/1/2015 to 6/15/20 14. All other EB5 remains current.

Updated: 9/30/2016