Visa Bulletin – February

The Department of State posted the visa bulletin for February today.

USCIS advised that it will accept family and employment-based adjustment of status petitions for February based upon the filing date. See https://www.uscis.gov/visabulletininfo for the updated information.

Overview of Visa Bulletin Changes:

• All EB-1 countries except for China and India will advance by two months to December 1, 2018. China will remain at May 22, 2017, and India will remain at January 1, 2015.
• EB-2 China will advance by two weeks, to July 15, 2015, and EB-2 India will advance by one day, to May 19, 2009.
• EB-3 China will advance by one month, to January 1, 2016, EB-3 India will advance by one week to January 8, 2009, and EB-3 Philippines will advance by two and a half months, to June 1, 2018. 
• Consistent with last month’s State Department projections, EB-3 Worldwide is expected to retrogress in March 2020.

Cutoff dates in the Dates for Filing chart for February will remain unchanged from January 2020.

Immigrant visa availability in the coming months

In the February Bulletin, the State Department states that there has been consistently high levels of demand for employment-based immigrant visas, and especially for EB-3 Worldwide (all countries except India and China) visa numbers. As the agency predicted last month, EB-3 Worldwide is expected to retrogress in March 2020.