August 2013 Visa Bulletin Is Out – With BIG Developments!

If you're an Indian national with an I-140 priority date of January 1, 2008 or earlier, you can apply for an immigrant visa (or adjust your status if in the U.S.) beginning August 1, 2013.

After 10 months of no movement, EB-2 INDIA priority date jumps 3 years and 4 months – from September 1, 2004 to January 1, 2008. However, other than EB-2 INDIA and EB-3 PHILIPPINES, which made a two-week movement, the rest of the employment-based priority dates were frozen.

India Second:  This cut-off date has been advanced in an effort to fully utilize the numbers available under the overall Employment Second preference annual limit. It is expected that such movement will generate a significant amount of new India demand during the coming months.

The other great news goes to spouses and children of permanent residents. The August 2013 Visa Bulletin reflects "C" (which stands for "Current") for the F2A category, which means that there's no more waiting time for spouses and children (below 21 years old) of permanent residents. What used to be a few years of wait is now down to zero. Beginning August 1, 2013, family members who have been waiting for their priority dates can apply for an immigrant visa. This also means that beginning August 1, 2013, permanent residents (green card holders) may file an I-130 immigrant petition concurrently with an I-485 adjustment of status application (if eligible) on behalf of their family members who are now in the United States. 

F2A: This category has become “Current” for August, and is expected to remain so for the next several months.  This action has been taken in an effort to generate an increased level of demand.  Despite the fact that there are large amounts of registered F2A demand, currently there are not enough applicants who are actively pursuing final action on their case to fully utilize all of the available numbers.

These changes for the Family F2A, and India Employment Second preference categories reflect actions which have been taken based on current applicant demand patterns.  Readers should expect that some type of “corrective” action will be required at some point during FY-2014 in an effort to maintain number use within the applicable annual limits.  Such action would involve the establishment and retrogression of such cut-off dates, and could occur at any time.

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