A recent announcement from the State Department makes it clear that EB-2 immigrant visa retrogression for nationals of India and mainland China is coming with the May visa bulletin.? Charlie Oppenheim, Chief, Immigrant Visa Control & Reporting in the State Department, provided further information on priority date movement in the EB-2 category for China-mainland born and India.? He has indicated that the May 2012 visa bulletin will contain a priority date of August 15, 2007 for China and India in the EB-2 category. With the April 2012 visa bulletin listing the priority dates for EB-2 India and China at May 1, 2010, this is a very significant slide backwards.
Graham Adair anticipates that the EB-2 priority dates will advance again fairly rapidly in October 2012 when the new fiscal year starts and the new immigrant visa numbers become available.? However, for the remainder of the fiscal year, we do not expect to see priority dates advance in any significant way for India and China.? Therefore, it will be important for applicants whose priority dates became current over the past few months to file their applications for adjustment of status before the end of April.