APRIL 2023 VISA BULLETIN: ANALYSIS AND PREDICTION

The Department of State recently issued the April 2023 Visa Bulletin. This blog post analyzes this month's Visa Bulletin. 

Visa Bulletin 

Table A: Final Action Dates -- Applications with these dates may be approved for their Green Card (Permanent Residency card) or Immigrant Visa appointment. 

 

EB	All Other	CHINA	INDIA	PHILIPPINES
1st	C	01FEB22	01FEB22	C
2nd	01JUL22	08JUN19	01JAN11	01JUL22
3rd	C	01NOV18	15JUN12	C
Other workers	01JAN20	01OCT14	15JUN12	01JAN20

Table B: Dates of Filing

The USCIS will be using Table A: Final Action Dates chart for I-485 employment-based filings. A beneficiary must be current on the above Table A chart in order to file their I-485, Adjustment of Status applications. See: USCIS Visa Bulletin Dates   

MU Law Analysis 

This month again there was good news and bad news for the retrogressed EB-2 and EB-3 categories. 

There was a retrogression in all categories of EB-2 except China due to high demand. Philippine and ROW retrogressed by four months whereas India unexpectedly retrogressed by nine months.  

The news remains positive for Philippine and Worldwide EB-3, where dates held at Current. China EB-3 progressed three months, which was unexpected, good news. 

 

Increased demand in the Employment Third category may necessitate the establishment of a worldwide final action date (including Mexico and Philippines) in the coming months. This means that all EB-3 categories are expected to retrogress by the end of the fiscal year.

EB-3 Other Workers, which is the category for occupations such as Nurse Aides, remains retrogressed but held steady to January 2020 for Philippine and ROW.