Hello everybody. In this video, we're going to talk about the September 2021 visa bulletin.
This is the last visible version of the fiscal year 2021. We'll talk about all
the movements and what it means for applicants in the family-based categories, as well as in
the employment-based category. So what are you waiting for, I will see you on the other side.
Hello, everybody, and welcome back to our immigration channel.
This is a place where we get the most up to date, immigration news, immigration updates,
and everything else that you need to make your immigration journey less stressful. My name
is Jacob Sapochnick and I'm an immigration attorney located in San Diego, California,
and we help clients in all 50 states. And just like every month, we provide you with an update
on the movement of the visa bulletin. And this month, we are focusing on September 2021. The last
visa Bulletin of the fiscal year talks about some solid movement in all employment-based categories,
as well as some movement in the family-based categories. We'll talk about that. And we'll go
through every single chart, just like we do every single month. If you're here for the first time,
don't forget to subscribe to our channel, click the notification bell so you don't miss any of
our videos and our live streams. And also give us a big like, so YouTube will be able to show
this video to more people just like you. So let's jump right into the visa bulletin. As
I mentioned before, we've definitely seen some solid movement in all employment-based categories
and some movement in the family-based categories. Let's start with the USCIS visa bulletin. Remember
USCIS updates every month, which chart they're going to be using to process Adjustment of Status
applications inside the United States. For September, it's going to be the following.
First, if you are an applicant in the F2A category, which are spouses of green card holders,
and children of green card holders under 21. For those applicants in that category, inside the
United States, you're going to be following the final action dates chart as indicated
in the visa bulletin. Remember that the F2A category is current at the moment. For all other
family-based categories, the USCIS determined that you have to use the dates for the filing chart.
So this remains the same as the previous month. For applicants in the employment-based categories.
If you're applying for Adjustment of Status inside the United States, USCIS indicated
that you're going to have to use the final action date chart for September 2021. So let's start with
employment-based categories. And look at the visa bulletin at a glance for September 2021.
For EB1 categories, all countries will remain current, including China and India. In the EB2
category, China will advance three months to July 1, 2018. India will advance three months
to September 1, 2011. All other countries remain current in the September 2021 visa bulletin.
For the EB3 category, for professionals and skilled workers cutoff dates for China will
remain the same at January 8, 2019. While India will advance six months to January 1,
2014. All other countries in this category EB3 are going to remain current for September 2021 visible
within finally looking at the EB5 category, All countries for known regional center programs
will remain current except from China, China will advance by one week to November 22, 2015. The
regional center program still remains unauthorized for the moment and we're waiting for it to be
reauthorized. Once that happens, the EB5 category for regional centers will also become current,
just like the non-regional center. So now, let's take a look at the actual visa bulletin chart
and take a look at the final action dates chart for September 2021. You can see that
EB1 is obviously current for all countries. As I mentioned before, for the EB2 category for China,
there's an advancement of three months to July 1, 2018. India advanced six months to September 1,
2011. That interesting movement you can see India advanced to January 1, 2014. China doesn't have
any change, remaining on January 8, 2018, for the EB3 category. The EB4 category is current for the
rest of the world, Mexico advanced by one month to March 1, 2020, and Central America advanced
by seven- three days to March 15, 2019. Before we talk about the family sponsor categories,
let's touch on immigrant visa numerical limitations. As the fiscal year 2021 comes
to an end on September 30, 2021, a department released the immigrant visa numerical limitations
for the fiscal year. The employment-based numerical limit is set at 262,288.
By comparison, the fiscal year 2020 employment base in numerical limit was set at 156,253
Immigrant Visas. The reason we see this increase is because the Immigration and Nationality Act
has some guidance with respect to usage and limits on visas for the fiscal year. In addition to that,
as I mentioned in previous visas, there's been a significant slowdown in family-based immigration
since the fiscal year 2020. Due to the pandemic, and closures of embassies and
consulates worldwide, limiting the processing of family-based visas, allowing more visas
to flow to the employment-based side. And based on the State Department’s current processing rates,
it's very likely there's going to be a large number of unused Immigrant Visas this fiscal
year. Therefore, there's a couple of lawsuits that were lodged against the State Department.
To prevent that from happening. Hopefully, these lawsuits are going to be successful to prevent
the loss of so many immigrant visas in this fiscal year. USCIS also promised that they're
going to try to process as many Adjustment of Status, green cards as possible before the end
of the fiscal year. To prevent the loss of more immigrant visas, the State Department predicted
that in the fiscal year 2022, the immigrant visa limit is going to be even higher, which
will be set at 290,000 employment-based immigrant visas. However, to make use of those extra visas,
US embassies and consulates worldwide will need to step up the game and speed up the processing
of immigrant visas worldwide. Now let's jump to the family-based chart of the September 2021
visa bulletin. First of all, we see a very minimal movement in the family-based chart final action
dates since the August bulletin was released. In fact, in the dates for filing charts for the
family-based categories, there's no movement at all in the F1 category, in the F2A and F3
categories as well. In the F2B categories, we see a slight movement in Mexico, advancing by about
55 days. And finally, in the F4 category, India advanced by a month, in Mexico advanced by 25 days
as well. So if you're wondering why is this such a big difference between the rapid movement on
the employment-based side versus almost the non-existent movement on the family-based side,
there are definitely several factors as the following. First of all, USCIS has offices inside
the United States that are still playing catch up from being closed for almost a year in 2020.
So that is definitely helping speed up the adjustment of status processing inside the United
States, which will help catch up on the imbalance in visa processing. What's happening on the State
Department side, embassies and consulates are still not working in a regular capacity.
They're still not taking regular visa processing. And that continues to create a backlog.
Specifically on the family-based side. Last year, there was definitely less demand for family visas
because of the inability of certain people to travel. And also, some embassies and consulates
were not issuing family visas due to some of the travel bans. Now we know that the refusal to issue
such visas was purely because travel bans were incorrect, and therefore,
more lawsuits were filed against the State Department to try to rectify the situation.
Once again, a travel ban means only that people cannot travel from a certain country into the
United States. It does not mean that embassies are not allowed to issue visas. And finally, by law,
any unused family visas are being moved to the employment-based categories. And therefore
we see such a big discrepancy between the two categories. Hopefully, in the next fiscal year,
we're going to see a faster movement on the family side, as more embassies and consulates
are starting to catch up on the processing and will hopefully soon start to process visas
on a more regular basis. Of course, once we have more information on that,
I promise to update you as well. I promise to keep updating you with any changes that I see with any
information that we learn. We bring it back to you guys on this channel. Once again reminding
you that if you're here for the first time, do not forget to subscribe to our channel to click
the notification bell and also give us a big like so YouTube will be able to share this video with
more people just like you. And as always if you do need my help, if you need a consultation, if
you need help with your case, all you have to do is send us a text message, 619-483-4549, and also
there are different other ways to get in touch with us. The links are in the description of this
video if you need immediate assistance. Thanks for watching, and I'll see you in the next video.