It’s that time again! Charlie Oppenhiem of the Department of State has provided updates on the visa bulletin. The COVID-19 pandemic has caused uncertainty in many aspects of life. The visa bulletin has been no exception! Charlie gave us some insights into visa number availability for employment-based green card applications. Visa number availability helps applicants figure out their place in line and when they might become eligible to apply for a green card.
Great News: Visa numbers are available for the first Employment Based (EB-1) category for applicants of ALL countries, including India and China. This category includes individuals of extraordinary ability and multinational managers or executives. Charlie expects visa numbers to remain available through October 2021. This means that all individuals with an approved EB-1 immigrant visa petition in this category are eligible to apply for a green card.
Good News: The other Employment Based categories are advancing quickly. This is good news for many Indian and Chinese applicants who must wait years for a visa to become available.
- EB-2 India: This category moved forward dramatically in April 2021. It will continue to advance significantly in May 2021.
- EB-3 China and India: This category has also moved forward a lot. Charlie expects there to be even more forward movement in the coming months.
We hope our clients will be able to take advantage of the substantial visa number availability. As we do every time the visa bulletin is published, we will continue to monitor visa number availability for each of our current clients, and let them know once they become eligible to apply for a green card.