The U.S. Department of State has issued the June 2010 Visa Bulletin. The news is mixed with some categories continuing to move in the direction of less retrogression, some categories remaining stagnant, and other categories actually backsliding. Furthermore, any progress in immigrant visa availability is tempered by very modest gains.
Perhaps the most interesting news for the June 2010 Visa Bulletin is the addition of the Dominican Republic category. While all countries receive a specific number of annual immigrant visas, only those countries exceeding their annual allotment, and thus becoming “oversubscribed,” are listed separately from the “All Chargeability Areas Except Those Listed” countries. This signifies greater demand from the Dominican Republic.
The first preference category (EB-1) remains current for all countries.
The second preference category (EB-2) remains current for all countries, except for India and China. For the fourth month in a row, EB-2 India did not move at all. It stayed put at February 1, 2005. This is troubling because no movement actually indicates greater retrogression. To maintain steady retrogression levels, each category would need to move forward thirty days from one month to the next. So when a category moves forward less than thirty days, this actually signifies an increase in immigrant visa retrogression.
EB-2 China moved forward by two months, from September 22, 2005 to November 22, 2005. This movement is very similar to the movement we have seen over the past few months. While the general direction of the movement is beneficial, it is certainly not significant. Indeed, the movement has only been slightly better than month-to-month.
The EB-3 category experienced similar modest gains. For the “All Chargeability Areas Except Those Listed,” China, and the Philippines, retrogression was cut back by two months, from April 22, 2003 to June 22, 2003. The Dominican Republic is also set at June 22, 2003. Aside from EB-3 Mexico, which recently became “unavailable,” EB-3 India continues to be the most oversubscribed category, and moved only twenty-two days, from October 1, 2001 to October 22, 2001.
The April 2010 Visa Bulletin can be viewed at: http://travel.state.gov/visa/frvi/bulletin/bulletin_1360.html.