January 2025 Visa Bulletin – Modest Forward Movement in EB-2 and EB-3 Final Action Dates; USCIS to Honor Dates for Filing, Which Remain Unchanged

According to the State Department’s January Visa Bulletin, Final Action cutoff dates for issuance of an immigrant visa or approval of an adjustment of status application will be as follows: 

• EB-1: India will remain at February 1, 2022, and China will remain at November 8, 2022. All other countries will continue to be current.
• EB-2: India will advance by two months, to October 1, 2012, and China will advance by one month, to April 22, 2020. All other countries will advance by two weeks, to April 1, 2023.
• EB-3 Professionals and Skilled Workers: India will advance by three weeks, to December 1, 2012, and China will advance by two months, to June 1, 2020. All other countries will advance by two weeks, to December 1, 2022.
• EB–3 Other Workers: India will advance by three weeks, to December 1, 2012. China will remain at January 1, 2017. All other countries will advance by one week, to December 8, 2020.
• EB-5: For the EB-5 Unreserved categories, China will remain at July 15, 2016, and India will remain at January 1, 2022. All other countries will remain current. The EB-5 set-aside categories (Rural, High Unemployment, and Infrastructure) will also remain current.

USCIS has announced on its own Visa Bulletin web page that the agency will accept adjustment of status applications based on the Dates for Filing chart in January. To be eligible to file an employment-based adjustment of status application next month, foreign nationals must have a priority date that is earlier than the Date for Filing for their preference category and country. The January Dates for Filing, which are listed below, are unchanged from December.

The EB-4 Non-Minister Religious Worker program is set to expire on December 20, 2024. If there is no action in Congress to extend it beyond that date, the category will become “unavailable” after midnight on December 19, 2024, and no immigrant visas or adjustment of status applications can be approved under the category until a reauthorization is passed. If the program is extended, it will be subject to the same Final Action dates as listed for the general EB-4 category.

According to the State Department’s January 2025 Visa Bulletin, an increasing number of EB-5 applicants are processing their applications under the EB-5 Rural, High-Unemployment, and Infrastructure “set aside” categories. As such, the State Department notes that it may become necessary to establish Dates for Filing and Final Action Dates in these categories during FY 2025 to avoid exceeding the categories’ annual limits.