Hello, everybody. In this video, we'll talk about the February 2021
visa bulletin. We have a new president, new administration, and some exciting news to report.
This visa bulletin has some predictions as well. So, what are you waiting for? Let's jump right in.
Welcome to our Immigration channel. This is a place where you get the most up-to-date
immigration news, immigration updates, and other information to make your immigration journey
stress-free. My name is Jacob Sapochnik, and I'm an immigration attorney based in San Diego,
California, and I help clients in all 50 states. If you’re here for the first time, make sure to
subscribe to our channel, click the bell to be notified. And also, give us a big like so YouTube
will be able to share this video with more people just like you. This visa bulletin contains some
predictions and visa availability for what's going to happen in the next few months. Just like every
month, we also want to tell you what chart the USCIS is also going to use in determined when
applicants can file for the green cards if they're inside the United States. So, on January 22, 2021,
USCIS announced that for family-based immigration, for under the F2A category, they're going to be
using the final action date chart, for all other family-based categories, they're going to be using
the dates for filing chart. And that's again, based on the USCIS announcement on the 22nd.
On the employment-based side, all applicants must use the final action chart. And that's the chart
that I'm going to be going through right now as we discuss the movement. So, right now, I'm going
to jump into the employment-based category visa bulletin. And we can compare what happened last
month, what would happen this month. So, let's dive right in and start with the EB1 category.
If you look at the EB1, China, and India, those categories continue to move forward. The cutoff
dates for these two are now set at January 1, 2020. And you can see what it was before,
last month. This category remains current for all other countries, by the way. Based
on the predictions that we have from this visa bulletin, both EB1 for China and India
are going to continue to move forward and advance probably by several months as well
in the March visa bulletin. But let's see what happens. Now, we jump into the employment-based
EB2 category. If we look at EB2, if you look at India, India only advanced by just a few days
to October 12, 2009. If you look at China, China moves to June 15, 2016. EB2 category remains
current for all other countries. So, based on the predictions that we have from this visa bulletin,
India is going to continue to advance by a few weeks each month moving forward,
China will be moved maybe up to three weeks to a month in the next few months moving forward.
We expect all other countries to remain current on the EB2 category for the next few visa bulletins
as well. Again, these are the current predictions that this particular visa bulletin is providing.
And so, I'm able to pass it on to you as well. Jump into the EB3 category. The cutoff for EB3
China is on January 1, 2018. India is stuck on April 1, 2010.
EB3 category remains current for all other countries as well, at the moment.
And then, once again, the prediction that we have is that EB3 will remain current for the rest of
the world. If you apply for your green card based on employment, it's still a good time to do so.
India will continue to advance by two to three weeks per month. And China will advance by even
more than a month based on the predictions that we have right now. EB3 category for other workers,
with the exception of China, the cutoff dates for EB3 Other Workers is the same for each country as
its respective EB3 cutoff dates. So, for China, it’s set at April 1, 2009. Let’s go to EB4. EB4
Mexico moves to December 15, 2018. EB4 cutoff date for El Salvador, Guatemala, and Honduras.
They move forward to April 15, 2018. And EB4 remains current for all other countries.
And finally, let's talk about EB5. EB5 remains current for all other countries other than China,
Vietnam. China EB5 is on August 15, 2015. And there's no expectation of any movement in the
future. In Vietnam, EB5 is stuck on October 1, 2017, and may move by another month or so based on
their predictions. I also wanted to take a look at the report that was provided by NVC to the
State Department on the different visa categories both on the employment side and the family side
and shows the waiting list of this particular visa category. So, let's take a look at the chart. So,
you can see how many visa applications are still currently in the waiting line. And this data is
accurate as of November 1, 2020. So, let's look at family sponsor preference. The first, F2A,
you can see that as of November 1, they had 35,000 people on the waitlist. And that increased 271,000
on November 1, 2020. It's a 15% increase in the family. Second, because of the proclamation,
we have an increase of more than 46% because spouses of green card holders were not able
to enter the United States. 680,000 people are waiting. And on the F2B category, adult children
of green card holders, we have more than 331,000 people that are waiting, that's an increase
of 70%. But you can see, the F2A has been the most impacted with, 91% increase in people waiting just
because of the Proclamation. Let's take a look at employment-based. So, if you look at it, EB2
second category, we've got 23,000 people waiting in November of 2018. 30,000 are now waiting
as of November 1, 2020, an increase of 30%. But if you look at the third category, EB3,
as of November 1, 2020, we have 116,000 people on the waitlist 127% increase in people who are
waiting. So, as you can see, the fact that the consulates have been closed and the pandemic
slowed down the processing, there's a big difference between what we saw in November
of 2019 versus November 2020. There’ll definitely be slowed down both on the employment side
and the family side. We hope, with, now, the new administration, we're going to see a push
in visa processing and with Biden's new executive orders on canceling the Muslim
ban. We've seen some provisions there as well about embassies reopening and I'm going to make
a video update about how the proclamation is going to impact what embassies and consulates
are going to be doing in the next few months. So, hopefully, you found this video helpful.
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click the notification bell so you don't miss any of our videos. And also, if you want to have
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have a consultation with you one-on-one. Thank you for watching, and I'll see you in the next video.
So, if you like this video, watch these two videos for more information just like that.