The May 2023 visa bulletin has been released by the Department of State. This bulletin outlines the availability of immigrant visas for both consular processing and adjustment of status applications to be filed in May 2023. The Final Action Dates and Date of Filing Applications for both Employment-Based and Family-Based immigrant visas have been provided by the State Department. The U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) will confirm which chart applicants must use to file their Adjustment of Status Application (AOS).
In the Employment-Based cases, USCIS will continue to accept AOS applications for applicants with a priority date earlier than the date listed on the Final Action Dates chart. For the EB-1 category, all countries except India and China are current. However, for Indian and Chinese EB-1 applicants, the cutoff date remains February 1, 2022, due to an increase in the rest of the world’s demand and visa number use in this category. The State Department cautions that this increase in demand could lead to retrogression in Final Action Dates for China and India in the coming months.
Due to an increase in demand in the EB-2 category, the State Department has retrogressed Final Action Dates for all countries except China and India in May, as predicted in the previous month’s visa bulletin. This retrogression has been implemented to keep immigrant visa number use within the annual limit for 2023. The May 2023 visa bulletin notes that both USCIS and the State Department have observed an increase in demand in the EB-2 category, which necessitates further retrogression. For the rest of the world, Mexico, and the Philippines, the cutoff date retrogressed to February 15, 2022, from July 1, 2022. For EB-2 India and China, the Final Action Dates remain the same as in the April visa bulletin.
In the Family-Based cases, there has been little to no movement in the May 2023 visa bulletin. USCIS will continue to accept AOS applications based on the Dates for Filing chart in May. The Final Action Date in the F-2A Family-Based category is no longer current for all countries except Mexico, where it is November 1, 2018. The Final Action Dates for the rest of the preference categories have only seen small movements.
In conclusion, the May 2023 visa bulletin has brought about retrogression and little movement in various categories. With the increase in demand, more retrogression in all the employment-based preference categories is expected for the remaining FY 2023, as there are no additional visas available as there were during the pandemic.
It is advisable to stay updated on the monthly visa bulletin for any changes. If you have any questions regarding your priority date, please contact us.