In April’s Visa Bulletin, the United States implemented a retrogression of the EB-2 final action dates for all countries except China. This retrogression is intended to ensure that the use of immigrant visa numbers remains within the FY 2023 annual limit.
As a result, the USCIS will accept employment-based adjustment of status applications with priority dates that are earlier than the Final Action Dates chart in the State Department’s April Visa Bulletin.
- EB-1: February 1, 2022
- EB-2: India will experience a retrogression of eight months, moving back to January 1, 2011
- EB-3 Professionals and Skilled Workers: India will remain at June 15, 2012
- EB-5: The cutoff date for the EB-5 Unreserved categories (C5, T5, I5, and R5) will remain on June 1, 2018. However, the EB-5 “Set-Aside” categories (Rural, High Unemployment, and Infrastructure) will remain current.
What is retrogression?
Retrogression occurs when the cut-off dates that determine visa cities in the united states’ availability move backward instead of forward. The cut-off dates for nearly all family preference categories and nearly all countries retrogressed significantly in January 2011 (United States)
At the beginning of each month, each consular office reports the total number of documentarily qualified immigrant visa applicants to the visa office.
Documentarily qualified applicants are those individuals who have obtained all documents required to meet the formal visa application requirements as specified by their consular office, and, for those applicants, the consular office has completed the necessary processing procedures.
The visa office calculates the monthly cut-off dates by comparing the number of documentarily qualified applicants with the available visa numbers for the next regular allotment (united states of America) They also consider past and estimated future visa demand, return rates, and estimated USCIS demand based on cut-off date movements.
Once the cut-off dates are established,(embassy of USA) they are published in the Visa Bulletin and shared with consular posts. Applicants, including those outside the US, can use the Visa Bulletin to determine when their visa will become current.
While Green Card applicants cannot change their priority dates, they may be able to move into a faster-moving category like EB-1. Unfortunately, Indians seeking employment-based (EB) green cards face long delays, often spanning decades, in other categories.