The Visa Bulletin

Here are the current dates per the mumbai consulate update:

Cat India Rest of the countries

E2 1 June 2006 Current
E3 Unavailable Unavailable

My PD is January 03 F2A Catergory ,So definitely good news all those in F2A .

http://travel.state.gov/visa/frvi/bulletin/bulletin_4310.html

Hey everyone,

Can anybody really say why Family 1st has been stuck for so long???

Better luck next time,

Leon

my PD is Oct 31 2006. Is there any prediction as how far these dates might move out in the next few months?

Hi Leon,

I noticed that F1 has been moving very slow since Jan 2008. I asked John why, when the July 2008 visa bulletin came out. He responded that it was due to the high demand.

Hi, can someone tell me why F3 has been stuck for 4 months? my PD is in July 2nd 2000… so close!

For the Family-Based Visa Bulletin, I am from El Salvador, what category do I belong in; i.e., Mexico, All Charge- ability Areas Except Those Listed, CHINA-mainland born, etc.?

Leon, I’ve been wondering the same thing. I’ve got a relative in the Philippines who’s in the 1st category (March 22, 1993) of Family-based. Her petition is July 1993. SO close. For a while, it was moving 2 months ahead and had it moved at that pace, my relative would be here by now or very close. I hope next month it’ll at least be in April.

I am so dissapointed for Category F3 in all areas!! What is going on?? Stll June!! Not eve a day moved.

My PD is OCT-2000
comon guys move and process those dates!! So little and yet so far!!

Sorry .. I had to get it out of my chest!
Hopefully next month will move!

My priority date is October 2005 in EB2. Can I apply for 485 based on august 2008 Visa bulletin? Pls advise me.

Yavaraj, congrats man…what u waiting go ahead and file before it backlogs again….

why is it F4 category was moving very slow? our priority date is april 1 1988.

Hi John,
My question is also same as leon,when can we see good movement in family first category?Last year it was moving perfect one month per month,when can we expect the same movement again?please answer,I been requesting this question from last 4 posts.tHnaks

Hi John,

Is there a possibility for the bills for nurse’s to be pass and end retrogression temporarily?

Thanks

Hey,
can you tell me what made EB2 dates to move to June 2006 from April 2004. Do you think it is going to continue moving forward?

From http://travel.state.gov/visa/frvi/bulletin/bulletin_4310.html :

“… and the Employment Third preference Other Worker cut-off date will return to 01JAN03 in October, the first month of the new fiscal year.”

Hello, and thanks for a great website. Like lilibeth, I am wondering why F4 progress has become so slow. In the “rest of the World” column, the last few years had accustomed us to a monthly progress of six to eight weeks. For the last several months however, it’s down to a week per month. What is the reason for this? Is it a temporary situation and can we expect a return to a “cruise speed” of at least a month per month? I’ve been thoroughly looking for this information with no success. I’d very much appreciate any hint. Many thanks, BH.

Hi HJ

You are very close to F3 Category
My PD for F3 india is 10/10/2000 .My filehas been transferred to New Zealand with same PO
due to change of citizenship

question:-
How advance did you receive documents from National Visa center(i.e when you start receiving papers from NVC I heard that they are sending docs 3 months prior to PD became a current) Appreciate if you can forward me the details of date you starte receving the docs from NVC and that time what PD was current

Thanks
Falgun

Hey everyone,

I see many people have been wondering what’s up with the family PDs that appear to be just stuck …

It can’t be the demand guys. Last year everything went smooth until the proposed immigration reform got thrown out by the Congress. In the WSJ they said that under the proposal to legalize illegal immigrants, they would first have to catch up with the family PDs up to a certain date. (Which I thought was fair.)

I may be wrong, but in any case, let me know what you think. Let me know if you heard different.

I hope somebody has good news!!!

All the best to everyone,

Leon.

Hey guys,

John, somebody recently told me they heard that last year the quota for Family 1st category was not even reached.

Doesn’t this sound disturbing?

Can you shine some light on whether that’s true or not?

All comments are appreciated.

Best regards,

Leon

Hello Falgun, I have not received any documents from NVC just yet.

**FOR F3**
From what I read online, NVC will send you the “Instructional Package for Immigrant Visa Applicants (aka Packet 3)” as soon as a visa number is available, so there will be no documents until our PD is current.

Here is the link for more information..
http://www.megalink.com/USEMBLAPAZ/english/consular/IVdocprep.htm

Hi John,

Our F3 (india) Pd is on sep 2000. But for the past 4 months ,F3 date is not moving.
My question is whether this is temperory or we have to wait till oct to see any movement.

I have an offer for emplyoment from a foreign country.So if I work outside my country for a certain period, Will there be any problems during my visa processing?

hello, i just wondering why first family category doesn’t move, my PD is july 22, 2002 and i don’t know why is really slow, just let me know when july is current?

My wife is an immigrant from Russia, and in August 2002 we applied to bring her daughter here as the adult child of a PR. Since that time the wife has become a citizen, and the daughter’s status is now FB-1. Earlier this year I created a spreadsheet listing each month for both this and last year, with the number of days gained each month last year last year in the FB-1 class. I then applied the same number of days to this year to obtain an idea when the daugher’s PD would be current. My projections held true to within three days until we hit July and August. July was -30 days off and August was -38 days short. If it was only the FB-1 class that was affected I might be able to understand, but it appears several other classes have also stalled. Believe me when I say I understand your pain. I phoned my wife who is visiting her family in Russia, and she cried hysterically when I gave her the news. All we can do is continue to write our Congessmen and pray. My heart goes out to each of you. Oh, I should add, make certain you hire a good immigration attorney. It’s far too easy to make a simple mistake, which can destroy your plans.

Leon, you can find the visa statistics at:

http://www.travel.state.gov/pdf/FY07AnnualReportTableVp1.pdf

It appears they actually issued 24,540 visas in the FB-1 class.

Gary, Thank you for the statistics!
Since it seems that you were more or less right in your predictions for FB-1, what do you think will happen in October when the numbers renew? My PD is April 8, 2002. Do you think they will get to that date in the Fall?

Hi, I saw the big jump in EB2 category from 04 to 06, could someone tell me why this big jump?? will it continue to move forward like this in next month?? my pd is in 07.

Please someone reply.. Thank you….

Hey Gary,

Thank you so much for the awesome stats!!! So, do you believe that anything major will happen until October in FB-1?

Also, how do you get a great attorney, as you suggested above? I may have to go back to Europe until my case becomes current. So close now… But I want to make sure I got a quality attorney here.

Thanks for the advice in advance!

All the best guys!

Leon

For all those who don’t know, the F4, F3, F2 and F1 the category will move along slowly until it cross the visa bulletin date of January 15 1998. The reason for this is that in 1994 the 245i act was passed and took effect in October of 1995 and was schedule to end in September 30 1997 which causes an increase of 578,000 cases. The the 245i act was extended to October 23rd 1997, to November 7, 1997 and then to January 14, 1998. Now because of all these extensions, what it did was increase the waiting time causing all those to file an I-130 to join a line that was already long.

We have to remember that the current movement of the Visa Bulletin may because of actions the USCIS and congress took years ago sometimes even ten years ago.

So I were you guys, I will pe patient and expect a slow painful movement of the visa bulletin for the next 7 months especially for the F4 category.

Leon, I have talked with several immigration attorneys the last few years, and I have been impressed with John. He has solid answers, and that is why I am here.

I have read several places, including on government sites, to look at how priority dates moved in the past to get an idea of how they will move in the future. That is what I did in my spreadsheet. That said, I can see a major flaw in that. If you noticed the PD for most areas moved until June, but then stuck on 3/15/2002. We honestly don’t know how many petitioners are in the hopper for each date. It could be the DHS simply ran out of visas in early June. It also might be when they got to 3/15/2002 there were 25,000 FB-1’s with that exact PD. The DHS doesn’t release information as to backlog or the the number in each catagory by PD. We do know something special happened this year, and they ran out of visas.

I put some comment regarding EB2 India , it moved from 2004 to 2006, will it move forward the same way as in next month??

But somehow it got removed or someone might deleted it. any idea??

Thanks

t, I was told by an attorney the 245(i) date went until 4/22/2001, and once we got past that the process would speed up. I think what we are up against right now is a lack of visas until the new fiscal year in October.

Valeria, For all areas except Mexico and the Phillipines the FB-1 in 27 moved 53 days in Sept, 35 days in October, 30 days in November, 31 days in December, and 24 days in January the following year 24 days. “If” the predictions hold correct your PD April 8, 2002 would be current in September. HOWEVER, it appears they are out of visas, and so you should be current in October.

Please excuse my writing. I need to take a nap. BTW, I am not an attorney or a prophet, and so take what I say with a lot of salt.

Thanks for your help, Gary! I haven’t been able to comment as much as I’d like – you’re doing a great job. =)

Hey Gary,

Thank you so much for these awesome comments, I do hope it gets better for all of us in FB-1 category.

Good luck to all!

BTW, do work personally with John on your case?

Thanks again!

Leon

its been almost a month since our interview under E3 category and still we haven`t received our visa from the interview. are we affected by the unavailability of visa?

interview date: june 19,2008
submitted necessary documents: june 26,2008

Hello to all.

I know all of you have been waiting so long for the GREEN CARD PACKAGE to knock your doors. We are mostly being said to be patient. I have been patient for something like 7 and a half years. I’m full. I can not wait longer than this. During the past 4 months, Category F3 has not moved even an INCH. The same thing has happened for some other Categories. My PD is Feb. 2001 and 8 months ago when I was asked when your visa will be CURRENT I answered 8 months later. 4 months have passed now and I still have to say 8 months later. Can anyone provide me with some logical answer why this is happening. Can we hope for a JUMP in our cases in the near future. Maybe some of you have some sort of communications with the authorities. Please give a hint. I’m very disappointed with the way the cases of moving forward; let’s say with the non-movement of the cases.

Any answer would be apprecieated.

Harsha,
EB2 will move further too and hopefully you will be able to file it soon. EB2 moved further because of influx of unused visa numbers from EB1 and EB2 ROW. They all go into EB2 india,china first !!!! good Luck !!!! btw what is your PD?

Hey PB,

I can understand how you feel, same here, every year for the last 7 years I thought I would have my green card THAT year ….

However the reality is quite different. This is why I have decided to go UNREAL and I’d like to ask another question:

There are shortcuts out there through which we can get the visas we deserve TODAY. Does anybody know how?

Let us know. The world is not fair. So let’s adapt.

All the best of luck to everyone.

Leon

I received aletter from NVC through my agency’s attorney to update our DS-230 last May and actually submitted them to NVC early this July. Would it be possible that my application be current anytime? (PD July 2006;EB3)

Leon thanks for your sympathy. I’m thinking if I had not applied for Green Card I would have been there a thousand times by now. Anyhow that’s the way it is. I even called NVC after MONTHS of effort and was successful to talk with them. What they did was exactly looking at the site we always check and tell me what is the PD dates they are processing at the moment. I told them that they did not do a big deal. This is what I’m doing all day long. What else can you tell me? She said nothing. Wait and see.

I smiled and appreciated her kind cooperation.

Regards,

By the way, let me ask a question. Maybe it’s funny because I already know the answer. Just to make sure. When my father applied for my GREEN CARD, he had a green card. But after he became a citizen, I married. So my category changed from F1 to F3 but we will be given visas for both me and my wife. IS THAT TRUE?

Harsha,
what is your PD? john, is it true that EB2 moved forward because of unused visa numbers from EB1,EB2 ROW ?

HELLO,

my pd is on sep 2000 F-3 category and that makes us feel anxious and pleased when year 1999 passed in just a 6 month feeling that our paper would start probably very soon but i would like to ask you sir what’s wrong with F-3 category in particular? we are passing our time in a TRAUMA since we are very much eager to join our family there in USA.sorry to say sir this is the feeling of my heart.what has happened to F-3 category?please sir make something happen so that F-3 category holds its reputation as compared to F-4 category.

expecting your prompt reply very soon.

Hey PB,

You are welcome! You are right, had I known it would have taken so UNNECESSARILY long, I would’ve taken a different route as well! Not that it’s too late anyhow … (except the fact that my time is up, and I may have to take my flight back to Europe …)

Regarding your question 45, I suggest you contact a legitimate attorney. You wouldn’t want to take any guesses there.

All the best of luck,

Leon

My F1 PD is June 2003. We’re on March 15, 2002.

According to all the statistics pointed out, when should I expect my PD to be current, realistically speaking? Two more years? Three?

Leon thanks for your answer.