USCIS Sets October 2024 Adjustment of Status Filing Charts For the Visa Bulletin
Categories: USCIS
Sheetal A. Patel of Pasricha & Patel, LLC, explains the adjustment of status filing charts for the Visa Bulletin
With the U.S. Department of State (“DOS”)’s publication of its new Fiscal Year 2025’s October 2024 visa bulletin, the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (“USCIS”) has decided that it will being using the Dates for Filing for Employment-Based Adjustment of Status Applications (Chart B). This is a change from the last fiscal year 2024, when USCIS had been using the Final Action Dates chart since March 2024 through the end of the Fiscal Year 2024 (Chart A). Meanwhile, USCIS also decided to continue to follow the Dates for Filing for Family-Sponsored Adjustment of Status Applications table. Please refer to the sections below for specific discussions about the visa availability date movements and trends under both the employment-based immigrant visa petitions, as well as the family-based immigrant visa petitions.
Employment-based Immigrant Visa Categories:
- With the start of the new Fiscal Year 2025, USCIS and the Department of State look to continue to manage the demand and usage of employment visa numbers, while fully recognizing that there is overwhelming demand, which resulted in the visa numbers in this category being exhausted and used up in late August to early September.
Interestingly, this means the USCIS will utilize the Dates for Filing for Employment-Based Adjustment of Status Applications chart to accept applications in all employment-based categories. Perhaps this is serving as encouragement to those applicants who have been waiting for quite sometime to see any meaningful movements in the visa categories. Specifically, EB-1 India’s filing date is April 15, 2022, while EB-2 India’s filing date is January 1, 2013, and EB-3 India’s filing date is June 8, 2013.
Meanwhile, the final action dates for India and China remain largely unchanged in October 2024, with some minimal movements in some of their specific preference categories.
- Employment-based first preference category (EB-1) (in the Final Action Dates table):
- There was no major change in the EB-1 cutoff dates for October. For India, the visa availability date remains on February 1, 2022.
- China’s visa cutoff date does move slightly ahead to November 8, 2022. In the September 2024 visa bulletin, it was on November 1, 2022.
- Meanwhile, for ‘World’, and Mexico, and Philippines, EB-1 continues to be Current/Available.
- Employment-based second preference category (EB-2)(in the Final Action Dates table):
- The visa availability date for EB-2 for India remains on July 15, 2012. It is still not clear if there will be any major movements starting in the next few months of FY 2025 visa bulletin though. This certainly is a category that needs further monitoring.
- For China’s visa preference category: the visa availability date moved slightly ahead to March 22, 2020.
- There was also no movement in the EB-2 visa category across all other countries and regions in the October 2024 visa bulletin. It is still on March 15, 2023.
As already mentioned above, due to the strong demand for employment-based visas overall this past fiscal year 2024, Department of State will continue to do its best to try to hold the line in visa number usage, particularly in the early part of FY 2025. It is not clear if there will be any further movements after those initial months. This is an area that certainly needs continual monitoring.
- Employment-based third preference category (EB-3) (in the Final Action Dates table):
- EB-3 India’s visa availability date moved ahead to November 1, 2012.
- EB-3 China’s visa availability date retrogressed to April 1, 2020. It was on September 1, 2020 in the September 2024 visa bulletin.
- EB-3 world’s visa availability date moved ahead to November 15, 2022. The same movement is recorded for Mexico and Philippines too. A reminder that in the September 2024 visa bulletin, all these regions’ visa availability all retrogressed to December 1, 2020. So, this is certainly back to its normal availability level.
- In the EB-3 Other Workers (EW) category, there is continued retrogression for Rest of the World countries – to December 1, 2020. India moved slightly ahead to November 1, 2012. Mexico’s visa availability date remains on December 1, 2020. And there was no movement for China (remained on January 1, 2017). However, there is movement for Philippines (it moved to December 1, 2020 from previous date of May 1, 2020) in this category.
- As Department of State has been warning for this past year, due to high demands for all visa numbers from all regions of the world, the Department of State will continue to exercise maximum control to manage the visa number usage, at least for the beginning of FY 2025. This is a situation that needs to be monitored carefully by Department of State and they will make any necessary adjustments as needed in the coming months.
- Employment-based fourth preference category (EB-4):
- EB-4 category is marked as “Unavailable” for all countries and regions around the world because the visa issuance and availability had expired on September 30, 2024.
- However, depending on when and/or whether there is Congressional action taken to extend this category, the Department of State does explain that as soon as legislative action is taken to extend the visa, it is likely it will become available effectively immediately. And if this visa is extended, then this category will continue to be subject to the same final action dates as the other employment fourth preference categories that are charged to each foreign state. This is a situation that needs to be monitored and it will depend entirely on what legislative action is taken and when.
- Employment-based fifth preference category (EB-5) (referring to the Final Action Date chart):
- In the Unreserved category, EB-5 visa availability date moved ahead to January 1, 2022. This represents drastic movement ahead as the previous September 2024 visa bulletin had visa number on December 1, 2020. Meanwhile, for China, there is also major movement, jumping ahead to July 15, 2016. In the previous September 2024 visa bulletin, the date was December 15, 2015.
- For the other countries, and the rest of the world, the visa continues to be available for the nationals from those countries and regions.
- On the EB-5 immigrant investor visa category, a reminder once again to readers that DOS’s visa bulletin for EB-5 preference category has also been updated to reflect the new provisions of the EB-5 Reform and Integrity Act (RIA).
- It now has two (2) pools of visa numbers within the EB-5 category. One is reserved for certain set-aside categories (Rural, High Unemployment, and Infrastructure projects), while the remaining available numbers remain ‘unreserved’.
- Finally, in the Final Action Dates chart for EB5 Set Asides (which covers Rural, and High Unemployment, and Infrastructure areas) for Chinese born and Indian born applicants as well as applicants from around the world continue to remain ‘Current’.
- Family-based Immigrant Visa Categories (with discussions also touching on the Final Action Dates table):
- A reminder that DOS continues to use the Dates for Filing for Family-Sponsored Adjustment of Status Applications chart.
- But in connection with the actual Final Action Dates table which is the actual visa availability date table to look at, and starting in June 2023, due to the steady usage of the F2A – Spouses and Children of Permanent Residents – DOS had to set a final action date for this category in order to maintain steady availability of this particular visa category for the upcoming months.
- So, in the Final Action Date for F2A- India for October 2024, it moved slightly ahead to November 22, 2021. This is the same date for use for China, Philippines, and the Rest of the World. Mexico’s F2A cutoff date moved ahead to March 8, 2021.
- In the much earlier June and July 2023 visa bulletin’s monthly notes, DOS had explained that because F2A visa numbers have maintained steady usage, therefore, there is “strong likelihood that it will be necessary to retrogress the final action date next month to keep number use within the FY-2023 annual limit.” This trend continued in the FY 2024 visa bulletin. And it is also the same outcome in the first October 2024 visa bulletin.
- In the October 2024 Final Acton Dates for Family-Sponsored Preference Cases, the various regions have visa availability dates of varying cutoff dates.
- Back in the August 2023 visa bulletin, the DOS had also explained that the F2B – Unmarried Son and Daughters (21 years of age or older) of Permanent Resident, is experiencing steady usage throughout the FY2023 and “it may become necessary to retrogress the final action dates for Rest of World countries, India, and China in the coming months to keep number use within the FY-2023 annual limit.”
- Interesting, for the latest October 2024 visa bulletin, U.S. Department of State has maintained dates in F2B as follows:
- India remains on May 1, 2016.
- China also stayed on May 1, 2016.
- The rest of the world also remained on May 1, 2016.
- Mexico moved ahead to January 15, 2005, and the Philippines remains on October 22, 2011.
- Diversity Visa Lottery:
- Department of State has confirmed that it has registered and notified the selectees who are eligible to participate in the DV-2025 Diversity Visa (DV) program.
- It is estimated that about 131,600 prospective applicants (which includes selectees and their spouses and children) have been registered, can confirm their selection, and may be eligible to make an application for immigrant visa.
- Because the selection is random and does not take into account how many family members may want to immigrate with the selectee, and because it is likely that some of the selectees will not complete their cases or will be found to be ineligible for the visa, the larger figure of 131,600 should be more than enough to make sure that all DV-2025 numbers can be used during FY 2025 (starts from October 1, 2024 through September 30, 2025).
- It should be noted that all eligible DV-2025 visa applicants must receive their immigrant visas (or adjust status, if they are present in the United States) by September 30, 2025.
- If they do not receive their immigrant visas (or adjust their status in the U.S.) by September 30, 2025, then they would lose their chance to do so, and they will have to pursue lottery registration next year again.
- In addition, spouses and children accompanying or following to join DV-2025 principal applicants are only entitled to derivative DV status until September 30, 2025.
- The new registration period for fresh diversity visa numbers should be announced in the next few months.
Even with the start of the new Fiscal Year 2025, the U.S. Department of State is still doing its best to try and keep the various employment-based visa numbers in steady movement so as to not have the visa numbers be used up too quickly. But with still high demand for these visas, Department of State will continue to be cautious in how it sets its monthly visa number goals.
It will be interesting to see if India will have any movements in the coming months starting in the new FY2025, because it is not certain if the Department of State will have enough leeway to move ahead with more visa movement advancements starting in October 2024. But it will also be important to keep track of how USCIS decides to either use Dates of Filing or Final Action Dates table as we move forward to the new FY 2025 and through the upcoming few months.
For this key reason, we do encourage readers to check in this space regularly for any further updates.
Pasricha & Patel’s Immigration Department has extensive experience in handling business and personal immigration matters. Our team is happy to speak with you on your specific issue.