Things you should know about Oct 2023 Visa Bulletin
DOS published the October Visa Bulletin today, and USCIS announced that it will accept family- and employment-based adjustments based on Dates for Filing. USCIS also updated its FAQ on the employment-based annual limit, which states, “With the start of the fiscal year 2024, DOS can begin allocating employment-based visa numbers from the FY 2024 limit, estimated to be 165,000”. As a result, we see a measure of recovery from the retrogressions of FY 2023 in all categories.
Every Final Action Date in the Visa Bulletin has advanced from its level in September 2023 (or remained the same). USCIS also added in response to a question as to why the Visa Bulletin did not advance sufficiently to allow new applications that “USCIS and DOS have significant volumes of employment-based adjustment of status and immigrant visa applications in their inventories. For some categories, including EB-2 and EB-3 for noncitizens chargeable to India, the agencies already have sufficient applications on hand to use up all of the available visas for FY 2024 and several fiscal years in the future.” INA 203 requires that DOS make “reasonable estimates of the anticipated numbers of visas to be issued during any quarter of any fiscal year…and to rely upon such estimates in authorizing the issuance of visas.
The Employment-based categories for India- The date for filing has not changed for EB-2 and EB-3, remaining at May 2012 and August 2012, but EB-1 has retrogressed from June 2022 to July 2019, a retrogression of 3 years.
The Employment-based categories for India – The final action dates have changed for EB-1, which has moved from January 2012 to January 2017; EB-2 has moved from January 2011 to January 2012; and EB-3, which has moved from January 2009 to May 2012. Bringing the Final action dates closer to the dates for filing for EB-2 and EB-3.
Next Visa Bulletin: The November 2023 Visa Bulletin is expected to bring significant changes as new visa allocations for FY 2024 become available.
The Law Offices of Prashanthi Reddy PLLC will keep updating their Immigration blog with new information as it arises.
