Hello, everybody. So, the December visa bulletin is out, finally,
In this video, we'll talk about the most important things in this particular visa bulletin.
And also, we'll talk about the impact of the retrogression that happened this month.
So, watch this video until the end where I'm going to talk about some predictions,
and what I think is going to happen in the next few months. So, let's dive right in.
Before we talk about the visa bulletin, remember that the visa bulletin has two charts. The first
chart is called the date for filing. So, the date of filing chart means whether you can submit a
final immigrant visa application for processing. The second chart is the final action date.
The final action date chart means that whether or not an immigrant visa is expected to be available.
In many cases, the date for filing will be way before the final action dates. This is usually
what we see, in most of our visa bulletins. What this means is that many immigrants will be able
to file their applications but it's going to be months and months before the government is
actually able to finally approve their case. And therefore, to solve the issue with the backlogs,
we have those two charts. In the first chart, the date of filing determines whether you can actually
file an application. So, if you're in the US, and you want to be able to file for an Adjustment of
Status, you can actually file for an Adjustment of Status and you don't have to wait for the visa
number to be actually available. And the second chart, the final action dates will determine
when an actual visa will be available, and you'll be able to get your green card.
And now, let's dive in and talk about December 2020 visa bulletin. And at the end of this video,
I'll give you a little of my predictions for the next few months. So, when you look
at the December 2020 visa bulletin, and we start with the family categories, F1, F2A, F3, and 4,
all the family categories, we haven't seen really much difference from November and October,
pretty much. The numbers really didn't move much. And the reason is because of COVID-19,
the backlogs in the embassies, we don't see too many family petitions being issued right now.
There are severe backlogs. And it really kind of shows when we look at the visa bulletin to
see there on the family side, we really see zero movements. Again,
embassies are really not processing as many visas as they should. There are severe backlogs
at the NVC and we can see all that impact on the visa bulletin, month after month. So,
that's really why, on the family side, we really see no movement. But on the employment side,
it's a whole different story. So, let's start with the EB1, first preference employment.
So, if you look at the final action chart first. EB1, China and India advanced to April 1, 2019.
If you look at the dates for filing chart, the cutoff date moves to November 1, 2020, for both
India and China, EB1 remains current for all other countries. Let's move to the EB2 category. EB2
India advances to October 1, 2009, on the final action chart. And EB2 China moves to May 1, 2016,
on the final action chart. EB2, otherwise, remains current for all other countries. On the dates for
filing chart, EB3 India remains at May 15, 2011. And EB3 China keeps the date of October 1, 2016.
As you can see, EB2 does not really show too much movement from the November visa bulletin. Let's
jump into the EB3 Category. EB3 India moves to March 15, 2010, on the final action chart,
but on the dates for filing, this is the big one, EB3 India retrogresses by a full year to
January 1, 2014. So, as you can see, these are the first signs of retrogression in the visa bulletin
for December 2020. And I'll talk in a few minutes about what it means for our future bulletins and
what it means for 2021. But we kind of expected retrogression. I didn't expect it to be so soon
but it's coming and it's going to… we're going to see more of it. For China, the cutoff date
moves to November 1, 2017, on the final action chart, and remains completely unchanged
on the dates for filing. And for the rest of the world, this category remains current, which is
great. EB3 other workers, except from China, the cutoff date for EB3 other workers is the same
for each country just like in their EB3 cutoff dates. Let's move to the fourth
preference cutoff date for EB4 Mexico, on the final action chart is November 22, 2018.
And for El Salvador, Guatemala, and Honduras, it's moving to February 1, 2018,
on the final action chart, and May 1, 2018, on the date of filing chart.
It’s current for all other countries. And finally, let's talk about the EB5. For EB5, the only
advance we have is EB5 Vietnam, which moves to September 1, 2017, on the final action chart.
For those of you that are inside the United States, and you follow the USCIS visa bulletin,
they said that they'll continue to accept the dates of filing chart, just like in the past
few months. So, let's talk about predictions. What I think is going to happen… again,
we don't see the embassies doing too much movement in the next six months, anyway. So,
there may be probably a slower adjustment as we get to the end of the year, after Christmas,
the New Year's. With the new administration coming into place, we should see more movement towards
adjudication as opposed to enforcement. And that will help a lot of the embassies to reopen and
start processing visas for adjudication. We are definitely going to see more retrogression coming
probably in the EB3 and maybe even EB2 categories for sensitive countries like China and India,
we're probably going to see more of that. And we may even see some of that in the
family categories, too. But I think the biggest worry is that retrogression is coming. We'll be
lucky for the past several months not to see it but I think it's just inevitable. But until
family visas are going to start resuming regular processing, we definitely are going to see those
imbalances. And so, it's important to keep an eye on this. And of course, we'll keep you updated.
We'll keep doing those videos every single month as the new visa bulletin comes out. So,
let me know in the comments if you have any questions about this bulletin,
about your particular case, you're concerned or worried. Don't forget to subscribe to our channel.
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