The May visa bulletin is out and we see a continuation of
what's been happening the last few months, which is not a lot of change.
But there is good news in the employment based categories and predictions for what
to expect in the coming months, which we will discuss in just a moment.
So what can we learn by looking at the new charts
for the family based preference categories?
Because of USCIS large visa backlog, there is enough demand
to use up the available green cards so they have not advanced the dates
in these categories.
Looking at the final action dates chart, we see that the F2A category—which
is spouses and children of permanent residents—remains current in all areas.
All the other dates that you see on the screen did not advance from last month.
Next, we have filing dates for family based categories.
Again, most of the dates you see on
this chart did not advance from last month, with a couple exceptions.
The first being F2B Mexico, which advanced nine days to May 1st,
2001 and F4 Mexico, which advanced over two months to March 1st 2001.
So what can you expect in the coming months
if you are waiting for a family based green card category to become current?
Due to the backlog causing high demand and the fact that most family based
green cards are processed at embassies and consulates abroad—many
of which are still not running at full capacity—it's
likely we will see little movement in final action dates
through the rest of the fiscal year, ending on September 30th 2022.
We may see some movement in filing dates at the end of the fiscal year,
as USCIS brings on staff to increase its processing capacity.
Next, let's take a look at the May visa bulletin for employment
based preference categories.
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If you look at the employment based final action dates and final date
charts for may, you might notice they looked a little different.
That's because the EB5 visa category was reauthorized
and reformed in the spending bill President Biden signed back in March.
The program now has different subcategories, each with their own filing
dates.
The Department of State has resumed processing approved applications
for this category that were filed on or before June 30th 2021.
And while the date changes in May Visa Bulletin don't go into effect until May
1st, these new EB5 dates are an exception and go into effect immediately.
So let's take a look at the final action date chart for employment
based categories.
Again, we can see that there was very little change
for May, the one exception being the EB2 category for India,
which moved ahead 55 days to September 1st 2013.
We also see there is now a final action date of November
22nd, 2015 for EB5 unreserved regional center subcategory for China,
with the rest of the EB5 categories now being listed as current.
The rest of the dates on the screen remain unchanged from April.
We see a very similar pattern of movement for the employment based filing
date chart.
EB2 for India advanced three months to December 1st, 2014,
but the rest of the dates on the screen remain the same as last month.
USCIS has announced they will be using the filing dates chart
for the employment based applications again this month.
This is a change from when Charlie Oppenheim was in charge and we would see
the use of the filing dates chart cut off for the rest of the year around January.
Because of the backlog of cases eating up demand we can expect in the coming months
to see little movements in these dates.
This may go on until the start of the fiscal year
in October, when more green cards become available,
unless Congress acts to recapture unused visas.
There is actually bipartisan talk of recapturing green cards
by both Republican and Democrat senators before the midterm elections this year.
I will include a link to that video here.
I will also continue to bring you additional immigration news
as it becomes available.
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Click here to watch this video next and I will see you there.