State Department January 2021 Visa Bulletin Summary

The Department of State has released the January 2021 Visa Bulletin. D&S provides a Monthly Summary of the employment-based priority dates. USCIS has advised that, in January 2021, it will accept adjustment of status applications for employment-based petitions based on the January Bulletin’s final action dates, for the first time in several months.

With respect to Final Action Dates, all countries of chargeability, except India and China, will remain current. EB-1 China and EB-1 India will advance five months to September 1, 2019. With the exception of India and China, all other EB-2 countries of chargeability will remain current. EB-2 China will advance one month to June 1, 2016 and EB-2 India will advance one week October 8, 2009. All EB-3 categories except India and China will remain current. EB-3 China will advance one and a half months to December 15, 2017, and EB-3 India will advance one week to March 22, 2010. 

As the EB-5 Regional Center program is set to sunset on December 28, 2020, the category will be unavailable in January pending reauthorization of the program by Congress. If there is further legislative action extending this category, final action dates would immediately become current for January for all countries of chargeability except for China, which would be subject to an August 15, 2015 final action date, and for Vietnam, which would be subject to a September 15, 2017 final action date. Final action dates for the EB-5 Non-Regional Center program, which will not be affected, remain current for all countries of chargeability except China, which will remain unchanged at August 15, 2015, and Vietnam, which will advance two weeks to August 15, 2017. 

With respect to Application Filing Dates, all categories (with the exception of the “Other Workers”, EB-4 special immigrants, and “Certain Religious Workers” categories) will remain unchanged from December.


State Department December 2020 Visa Bulletin Summary

The Department of State has released the December  2020 Visa Bulletin. D&S provides a Monthly Summary of the employment-based priority dates. USCIS has advised that, in December 2020, it will once again accept adjustment of status applications for both employment-based and family-based petitions based on the November Bulletin’s application filing dates for all categories except for the F2A family-based category, which may file based on final action dates

With respect to Application Filing Dates, for China all categories will remain unchanged from November, with the exception of EB-1, which advanced two months to November 1, 2020. For India, EB-1 also advances by two months to November 1, 2020, but both EB-3 and "Other Workers" retrogressed by one year to January 1, 2014. For all other countries of chargeability, all EB-1 to EB-3 and “Other Workers” categories remain current. 

As for Final Action Dates,  for both China and India EB-1 advances four months to April 1, 2019.  EB-2 China advances nine days to May 1, 2016,  EB-3 China advances one month to November 1, 2017, and China “Other Workers” advances over a month to February 15, 2009.  For India, EB-2 advances 9 days to October 1, 2009, while both EB-3 and “Other Workers” advance 15 days to March 15, 2010, while all other categories  remain current.  For all other countries of chargeability, all EB-1 to EB-3 and “Other Workers”  categories remain current. 

The EB-5 Regional Center program has been extended by legislation until December 11, 2020.  As such, final action dates for both the EB-5 Regional and Non-Regional Center programs for all countries of chargeability except for China and Vietnam will remain current. EB-5 China will remain unchanged at August 15, 2015, and EB-5 Vietnam will advance two weeks to September 1, 2017.


Department of State November 2020 Visa Bulletin Summary

The Department of State has released the November 2020 Visa Bulletin. D&S provides a Monthly Summary of the employment-based priority dates. USCIS has advised that, in November 2020, it will once again accept adjustment of status applications for both employment-based and family-based petitions based on the November Bulletin’s application filing dates for all categories except for the F2A family-based category, which may file based on final action dates.

With respect to Application Filing Dates, all categories (with the exception of the “Other Workers” category) will remain unchanged from October. As for Final Action Dates, all countries of chargeability, except India and China, will remain current. EB-1 China and EB-1 India will advance six months to December 1, 2018. With the exception of India and China, all other EB-2 countries of chargeability will remain current. EB-2 China will advance almost two months to April 22, 2016 and EB-2 India will advance just under a month to September 22, 2009. All EB-3 categories except India and China will remain current. EB-3 China will advance three months to October 1, 2017, and EB-3 India will advance one and a half months to March 1, 2010. 

The EB-5 Regional Center program has been extended by legislation until December 11, 2020.  As such, final action dates for both the EB-5 Regional and Non-Regional Center programs for all countries of chargeability except for China and Vietnam will remain current. EB-5 China will remain unchanged at August 15, 2015, and EB-5 Vietnam will advance two weeks to August 15, 2017.