Employment-Based Final Action Dates Retrogress for June

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The Department of State’s Visa Bulletin for the month of June reports that during the past two months, there have been extremely high levels of employment-based demand for adjustment of status cases filed with U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. This has necessitated retrogression of final action dates in several categories in an effort to hold visa number use within the FY 2016 annual limit.

For India, the second preference final action date has retrogressed. This date is expected to advance slowly during the last three months of the fiscal year, at a pace consistent with that of the India employment-based third preference date.

For China, both the second and third preference final action dates have retrogressed. Neither of these dates is expected to advance before the end of the fiscal year.

The bulletin states, “Every effort will be made to return the retrogressed dates to those listed in the May 2016 Visa Bulletin as quickly as possible, once the FY-2017 annual limits take effect October 1, 2016. Speculation on how quickly, or when, a full recovery might occur might not be possible until late summer.”