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October 2012 Visa Bulletin Commentary

The October 2012 visa bulletin was released today. Here’s the pertinent information most of my readers are looking for:

For all countries except India, China, Philippines, and Mexico: F2A preference has advanced 25 days to priority date (PD) 1 June 2010.  No progress in F2B preference keeping PD at 15 September 2004; F4 moves forward 7 days to 15 March 2001;  EB2 advances 3 years to PD 1 January 2012 (good but not good enough) and, and EB3 advances 21 days to 22 October 2006.

For India only: F2A preference has advanced 25 days to priority date (PD) 1 June 2010.  No progress in F2B preference keeping PD at 15 September 2004;  F4 moves forward 7 days to 15 March 2001; EB2 retrogresses 2 years, 11 months and 15 days  from the last time it was available, which was May 2012.  PD is now 1 September 2004. EB3 advances 7 days to 15 October September 2002.

I had high hopes that ‘EB2 all countries’ would become current this month, so I am disappointed and I feel for all of you out there with the same hopes.  From the recent visa office update, I can only hope that next month, it will be current. Some might say we should be happy with a significant jump of 3 years. However, as I have mentioned previously, this category has always been current (at least during the last 6 years that I have been practicing immigration law).

It is even more disappointing that EB2 for India has retrogressed more than 2 years, after being unavailable for several months.

If the Visa Office Update is anything to go by, now I’ll be watching the EB1 category very closely as it was mentioned that EB1 usage is at an all time high.  Why do they mention this specifically?

Anyway, we will update you on any other relevant news if and when available and will report on the November 2012 visa bulletin in due course.

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