As the Department of State (DOS) indicated last month, the August visa bulletin introduced broad delays across almost all employment-based categories worldwide, with EB-2’s earliest cut-off date set to Jan. 2017, and EB-1 and EB-3 pushed back to July 2016. These retrogressions are expected to be temporary, as the footnotes of the bulletin indicated that for all employment-based retrogressions “every effort will be made to return these final action dates to those which applied for July.”

For EB-5, India and Vietnam both retrogressed to China’s cut-off date in 2014. July’s advisory indicated that with the start of a new fiscal year Oct. 1, India would likely reset to summer or fall 2017, and Vietnam would likely reset to fall or winter of 2016 – the August advisory did not further elaborate on these estimates.

One family-based category continued with an unusually favorable treatment: the F2A category (Green Card Holders’ spouses and unmarried children under age 21) remained current, allowing applicants with an approved petition to move forward with visa processing.

I.A. Donoso & Associates, LLC, is a law firm based in Washington, D.C., and is recognized as a leading immigration law firm with recognized expertise in visas for EB-5 investors, professionals and academics.