The October 2023 Visa Bulletin was released by the Department of State (DOS). The visa bulletin summarizes the availability of immigrant visas both for consular processing and adjustment of status applications to be filled in the first month of the new fiscal year (FY), October 2023. The State Department releases both the Final Action Dates and Date of Filing Applications for Employment-Based and Family-Based immigrant visas. U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) confirms which chart Applicants must use to file their Adjustment of Status Application (AOS). USCIS will accept Employment-Based cases based on the Dates of Filing Action chart. For Family-Based cases, they are accepting petitions based on the Date of Filing Chart. Below, see the detailed movement from the October 2023 visa bulletin.
Employment-Based Cases
In the October 2023 visa bulletin, the biggest change is seen in the advanced of the Employment-Based (EB) dates. This shows the new allocation of visas due to the new fiscal year. The DOS mentions more movement is possible in the upcoming months, as petitions are filed and they better understand visa usage patterns.
For the Final Action Dates Chart, in the EB first preference category (EB-1), the biggest advancement is for India. In the August 2023 Visa Bulletin, the dates for India EB-1 retrogressed by 10 years. The number of qualified applicants for India EB-1 continues to be more than the number of available visas. The dates advanced a little over five years to January 1, 2017 for India EB-1. This movement is far from the February 1, 2022, dates in the July 2023 Visa Bulletin as noted in the August Visa Bulletin. Hopefully, we will see advancement in EB-1 India as the year goes on. For other EB-1 categories, there was modest advancement. For China, the dates advance by two weeks, to February 15, 2022. The rest of the world is back to current.
Applicants can file their AOS application using the Dates of Filing Chart in October. To control the number of applications and clear the pending applications, the dates moved back for EB-1 India Dates of Filing. The dates for EB-1 India were retrogressed by three years to July 1, 2019. However, the dates for China advanced by one month to August 1, 2022.
For the Final Action Dates Chart, the EB second preference category (EB-2) shows the biggest advancement for India. The EB-2 Final Action Dates for India advance by one year to January 1, 2012. For China, the dates advance by close to three months to October 1, 2019, and for all other countries the date advanced by one week to July 8, 2022. In the Dates of Filing Chart, we see modest movement. For China, the dates advance by almost three months to January 1, 2020. For India, the dates advanced by two weeks to May 15, 2012. The dates for the rest of the world advanced by one month to January 1, 2023.
We see the biggest advancement in the EB-3 Professional/Skilled Worker category in the Final Action Date for India, once again. The dates for India advanced by three years and four months to May 1, 2012. There is still a big difference between India and the rest of the world, including China. For China, we see the dates advance by four months to January 1, 2020. Dates for the rest of the world advanced by one year and seven months, to December 1, 2021.
For the rest of the world excluding India and China, the Final Action Dates retrogressed by to May 1, 2020, nearly two years back. The Final Action Date for EB-3 China Professional/Skilled Worker advanced by two months, to June 1, 2019. EB-3 India remains at January 1, 2009. The State Department continues to monitor and adjust the dates based on the availability and demand for each visa type. More retrogression is possible in the upcoming visa bulletins, per DOS. In the Date of Filing Chart, the dates remain unchanged for India, at August 1, 2012. For China, the date advanced a little over 10 months to September 1, 2020. For the rest of the world, the dates retrogressed by three months to February 1, 2020.
As we return to the more usual pre-COVID era, a significant decrease in the number of visas available for this FY is being seen. According to USCIS, the Employment-Based FY 2023 limit is 165,000, which is more than the 140,000 annual limit. This is a significant decrease from the annual limits in the last two years. These numbers are reflected in the October Visa Bulletin.
Family-Based Cases
For Family-Based preference categories, an increase in demand continues. We see modest movement in the October 2023 visa bulletin due to that continued demand.
In the F-2A Family-Based category, which is Spouses and Unmarried Children Under Age 21, the Final Action Dates advanced over a year to February 8, 2019 for China, India, and the Rest of the World. In this category, Mexican nationals saw the dates advance by over two and half years to February 1, 2019. For the Philippines nationals, the dates advanced almost one year to February 9, 2019. The second movement we see in the F2B category (Unmarried Sons and Daughters, 21 years of age or older, of Permanent Residents) is for Mexico. The dates advance by five months to January 1, 2002. The rest of the dates and categories remain unchanged from the previous visa bulletin, issued in September 2023. The October 2023 Visa Bulletin shows movement for the F-3 category (married children of U.S. citizens) for Mexico. The dates advanced by almost two months to March 8, 1998. The backlog continues to increase as demand increases.
In October 2023, USCIS will accept Family-Based cases based on the Dates for Filing Chart. As the demand for F2A visas continues, the dates did not return to current, which is typical in previous fiscal years. The cutoff dates for all countries are set at September 1, 2023, across the board. It is possible for the dates to return to “current’ sometime during the 2024 fiscal year.
We continue to monitor and report movements related to the monthly visa bulletin. If you have questions regarding your priority date, please feel free to contact us. We put our extensive experience and expertise to work for you and are with you every step of the way.