LawFlash

US Department of State Reissues October Visa Bulletin

September 28, 2015

The previously announced filing date cut-offs have been rolled back significantly.

On September 25, the US Department of State issued a revised October Visa Bulletin that contains new and earlier filing cut-off datesthan those contained in the original October Visa Bulletin released on September 9. The new filing cut-off dates are apparently in response to concerns raised by the US Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) about its ability to process a large number of adjustment of status applications.

This new bulletin supersedes the original October bulletin, which contained for the first time filing cut-off dates that allowed the filing of adjustment of status applications before visa numbers were available. The filing cut-off dates that have been adjusted are identified below in Bold type. This alert addresses Employment-Based filing dates only.

Revised filing cut-off dates are as follows:


Employment-
Based

All Chargeability
Areas Except
Those Listed

China
(mainland
born)

India

Mexico

Philippines

1st

C

C

C

C

C

2nd

C

01JAN13
(changed from 01MAY14)

01JUL09
(changed from 01JUL11)

C

C

3rd

01SEP15

01OCT13

01JUL05

01SEP15

01JAN10
(changed from 01JAN15)

Other Workers

01SEP15

01JAN07

01JUL05

01SEP15

01JAN10
(changed from 01JAN15)

4th

C

C

C

C

C

Certain Religious
Workers

C

C

C

C

C

5th Targeted
Employment Areas/
Regional Centers
and Pilot Programs

C

01MAY15

C

C

C


These revised filing cut-off dates will reduce the number of adjustment of status applications that can be filed on October 1; this development will come as an unpleasant surprise to many persons who planned to file such adjustment of status applications on this date, especially those in the EB-2 China, EB-2 India, and EB-3 Philippines categories. Please note that final action or approval cut-off dates in the Employment-Based preference categories remain unchanged.

We will continue to monitor the situation closely and will provide further information as soon as it becomes available.

Contacts

For more information, or if you have any questions regarding the issues discussed in this Immigration Alert, please contact any of the following lawyers:

Washington, DC
Eleanor Pelta      
Eric S. Bord