USCIS Announces Adjustment of Status Filing Dates for December

USCIS has announced that for December, Family-Based Adjustment of Status applicants can use the "Filing Dates" listed on the Department of State's December 2015 Visa Bulletin. Employment-Based Applicants, however, can only use the "Final Action Dates" to determine when they are eligible to submit Adjustment of Status applications. 

This announcement comes after USCIS issued updated instructions regarding the use of the Revised Visa Bulletin, implemented in September 2015, which contains two sets of dates for both family-based and employment-based immigrant visas. 

Department of State December 2015 Visa Bulletin Summary

The Department of State released the December 2015 Visa Bulletin today.  D&S provides a Monthly Summary of the family and employment based priority dates.  This month, the Final Action date for EB-2 India advanced by ten (10) months to June, 1, 2007.  The Final Action date for EB-2 China, however, remained unchanged at February 1, 2012.  The Final Action date for EB-3 India saw a modest progression of less than a month to April 22, 2004 and EB-3 China advanced 3.5 months to April 15, 2012. The Final Action date for EB-5 China advanced three (3) weeks to December 15, 2013.  

This month there was no movement in the Application Filing dates for any of the employment-based preference categories.  Finally, the United States Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) has yet to confirm whether they will continue to accept adjustment of status applications for individuals whose Application Filing dates remain current in December.  D&S will continue to monitor USCIS’s Visa Bulletin page and provide an update when the agency announces later this month whether it will continue to accept these applications.

UPDATE: 165 Consular Posts (85% of Nonimmigrant Visa Demand) Back Online

The most recent alert by the Department of State (DOS) indicates that 165 consular posts, representing more than 85 percent of the worldwide nonimmigrant visa demand, are now online and issuing visas. With the system largely restored, consular posts overseas issued more than 82,000 visas on June 24th and more than 238,000 non-immigrant visas this week alone.

D&S will continue to provide updates as they become available.