March 2014 Visa Bulletin: EB-2 India Remains Unchanged (DOS Prediction)

U.S. Department of State (DOS) has released the March 2014 Visa Bulletin which is the sixth Visa Bulletin for the Fiscal Year (FY) 2014.  

Under the Employment Based (EB) category, cutoff dates for EB-2 India remain at November 15, 2004 though cutoff dates for EB-3 India have moved forward by couple of weeks to September 15, 2003.  Similarly, the cutoff dates for EB-2 and EB-3 China too have moved forward to February 15, 2009 and September 1, 2012, respectively. 

Under the family based category for spouses and minor children of lawful permanent residents (F-2A), the cutoff date remains at September 8, 2013 for all countries other than Mexico.  Continued heavy demand in recent months for Mexico F-2A has resulted in retrogression of this category.  The DOS reminded its readers that there are many applicants with priority dates that are earlier than any listed cut-off dates.  A cut-off date does not necessarily mean that all applicants with the priority date before cut-off dates have received a visa. 

The DOS has predicted that for employment-based categories, EB-2 (Worldwide) is expected to stay current, EB-2 (China) would see potential movement of three to five weeks, but there is no movement expected for EB-2 (India).  On the EB-3 side, little if any forward movement is expected for EB-3 (China, Mexico, & Worldwide), EB-3 (India) may see little movement, and EB-3 (Philippines) may see three to six weeks of movement.  Similarly for F2A Worldwide category, no forward movement is expected in the coming months though the rest of the family sponsored categories may potentially move forward by few weeks.

We will continue to monitor developments on this front and will provide our readers with additional information once we receive it from the DOS.