On April 13, 2007, the U.S. Department of State (DOS) released the May 2007 Visa Bulletin. For the first time in several months, there was significant progress in the employment-based (EB) categories. The EB-3 world-wide category (individuals born in all countries other than India, China, Mexico, or the Philippines) moved forward one year, to August 1, 2003. The EB-3 priority date for persons born in the Philippines also moved forward one year to August 1, 2003.

The EB-3 priority dates for persons born in China and India remained unchanged at August 1, 2002 and May 8, 2001, respectively. Furthermore, the EB-3 cutoff date for persons born in Mexico is May 15, 2001.

There were no changes in the priority dates for any other employment-based immigrant visa categories from the prior month. EB-1 remains current for all countries. EB-2 is current for all countries other than India and China. For individuals born in India, the EB-2 priority date is January 8, 2003. For individuals born in China, the EB-2 priority date remains April 22, 2005.

It is important to note that the country of "chargeability" is not the same as citizenship. Generally, DOS looks at the country of birth in determining whether a person is chargeable to a given country. As a result, persons who become citizens of other countries (i.e., Indians who become Canadian citizens) are still considered chargeable to their birth country for immigrant visa purposes. Individuals can be "cross-charged" to another country if they are married to an individual who was born in a different country.

Despite the lack of progress in most EB categories, the Visa Bulletin includes some hope for the coming months. In discussing visa availability for the rest of the fiscal year, DOS notes that both the U.S. Department of Labor and U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services have a large number of cases that are in their backlog reduction efforts. This has led to slower usage of immigrant visas than predicted, and DOS advanced the worldwide and Philippines EB-3 cut-off dates to ensure maximum visa usage during the fiscal year. DOS notes that "Unless there is a significant increase in Employment demand, it will be necessary to continue this rate of movement during the upcoming months. Such movement could be expanded to include other chargeability areas and preference categories."

While this suggests that we may see rapid forward movement in priority dates, DOS warns that this advancement could lead to an "inevitable increase in demand for numbers as adjustment of status cases are brought to conclusion at CIS Offices. Such increased demand could have dramatic impact on the cut-off dates." Applicants may have only a limited window of time to file applications for adjustment of status before their priority date retrogresses.

For more information on the Visa Bulletin and country quota movements, including information about movement in the Family-Based Quotas, please see our DOS Visa Bulletin and Quota Movement page, which includes detailed charts of quota movement for the past decade.

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