The level of demand in green card availability, particularly in the employment-based preference categories, increased significantly late last winter and that demand has since been sustained.
The following outlines the changes that will take effect from December 1 and revises some previous projections regarding visa availability into the New Year.
EB-1 (First Preference): Green card availability remains immediate for all foreign nationals in December and is expected to remain that way in the coming months, although there is advance warning from the Department of State of some future retrogression for nationals of China and India.
EB-2 (Second Preference): Green card availability remains immediate in December for nationals of all countries other than China and India and is expected to remain this way in the next few months. The final action date moved forward by just over 2 months for Chinese nationals and by 3 months from Indian nationals. However, given the level of demand in this category, there is advance warning that it may become necessary to impose final action dates for most foreign nationals by mid-2017.
EB-3 (Third Preference): There is little to moderate progress for all nationals in December as the level of demand appears to be increasing, as anticipated. The “holding pattern” is likely to continue in January. For nationals of India specifically, there will be one week advancement in December to a final action date of March 15, 2005. There is advance warning from the Department of State that this final action date for EB-3 India will likely hold for several months, then possibly move one week, then likely hold again.
Of course, any long-term predictions may be impacted by the new Federal government administration.
We will continue to monitor preference category movements and advise current clients of any impact on their immigration matters.