Washington, D.C., September 19, 2019: The Department of State (DOS) recently released the October 2019 Visa Bulletin.

October Visa Bulletin

October’s Visa Bulletin kicks off the start of the new fiscal year for the U.S. federal government, which means new batches of visas will be made available on October 1, 2019 for all green card categories.

We normally expect to see forward movement in many visa categories in the October Visa Bulletin, and this year did not disappoint.

EB-5 Final Action dates for India moved forward slightly (from September 1, 2017 to November 22, 2017), but remained the same for China, and moved forward to October 15, 2016 for Vietnam.

EB-3 for all countries except India, China and the Philippines is again Current (meaning there is no waiting list). Similarly, EB-2 for all countries except for India and China is also Current (meaning there is no waiting list).

EB-3 and EB-2 for India and China, however, remain problematic. India’s EB-3 and EB-2 cut of dates are in May and January of 2009. EB-3 China has a cut-off date of November 1, 2015, and EB-2 China has a cut-off date of January 1, 2015.

Dates for Filing

The big news for October 2019 is that USCIS has allowed Dates for Filing for Employment Based immigrant visas!

The EB-5 category Dates for Filing are current for the whole world, except for China which was given a Dates for Filing cut-off of January 1, 2015.

EB-3 Dates for Filing for India is at February 1, 2010. EB-3 Dates for Filing for China is at March 1, 2017.

Based on USCIS Dates for Filing, if you have a priority date for an Employment Based visa petition that is before the dates indicated by USCIS, and you are living lawfully in the U.S., you likely qualify to file I-485 Adjustment of Status during the month of October 2019.

If you believe you may qualify, now is the time to contact your immigration attorney to begin review and preparation of this process.

We reproduce the USCIS chart of Dates for Filing for October 2019 below:
Dates for Filing for Employment-Based Adjustment of Status Applications:

Donoso & Associates, a leading immigration law firm based in Washington, D.C., will continue to report on developments regarding the immigration law and policy through our news section of donosolaw.com.