In today’s blogs, we will take a look at the release of the September Visa Bulletin 2022 and what you can anticipate for employment-based and family preference categories in September.
The Department of State publishes the visa bulletin monthly, which outlines the availability of immigrant visa numbers for that specific month. The “Final Action Dates” and “Dates for Filing Applications” charts denote when immigrant visa candidates should be alerted to assemble and submit the necessary documentation to the National Visa Center.
For Family-Sponsored Applications:
According to the guidance released by USCIS, for all family-sponsored preference categories, candidates should use the Dates for Filing chart in the Department of State Visa Bulletin for September 2022.
For Employment-Based Preference Applications:
All candidates under employment-based preference categories should use the Final Action Dates chart in the Department of State Visa Bulletin for September 2022.
Final Action Dates For Employment-Based Preference Cases:
Per the Department of State’s September 2022 Visa Bulletin, the following Final Action cutoff dates will be applicable for issuing the immigrant visa for employment-based categories:
- EB-1: All countries, including India and China, will stay.
- EB-2: India stays unmodified on December 1, 2014, and China stays unmodified on April 1, 2019. All other countries will stay.
- EB-3: Professionals and Skilled Workers: EB-3 India and EB-3 China will stay unmodified from the previous month, on February 15, 2012, and April 22, 2018, respectively all other countries will stay.
- EB–3: Other Workers: For this category, the Department of State has developed a worldwide cutoff date of May 8, 2019, to prevent surpassing the annual numerical limits. EB-3 India and China will remain unmodified on February 15, 2012, and June 1, 2012.
- EB-5: EB-5 Final Action dates will stay current for all countries and all EB-5 “Set-Aside” categories (Rural, High Unemployment, and Infrastructure). The Department of State has taken corrective action by creating a Final Action cutoff date which has been extended by one month to December 22, 2015, for the EB-5 China Unreserved Non-Regional Center (C5, T5, I5, and R5) categories.
For September, the gist is that the EB-5 Final Action date for China Unreserved categories has been extended by one month to December 22, 2015. The remaining Final Action Dates for the employment-based categories have not been changed from the previous month. On the Dates for Filing chart, EB-5 China has been extended by more than 1 week to January 1, 2016, while the remaining employment-based categories stay unchanged from the previous month. The State Department has verified that the FY 2022 limit for employment-based visas is 281,507.
On the family-based side, little to no action has been seen in most categories, considering that Consulates continue to deal with the ongoing visa backlog caused by the COVID-19 pandemic.
This is the end of today’s blog update. We hope you found this blog useful. Please don’t forget to support us by subscribing to our newsletter and sharing this blog with your friends and family on Facebook, Whatsapp, and Twitter.
