U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Service (USCIS) has released the June 2021 Visa Bulletin. The bulletin USCIS has released notifies applicants if they are able to submit their I-485, Adjustment of Status Application next month. To be eligible to file an employment-based adjustment application in June, foreign nationals must have a priority date that is earlier than the date listed below for their preference category and country.

Highlights of the Visa Bulletin

Employment-Based Applications: USCIS has again chosen the Final Action Dates chart for employment-based applications.

1.      Employment-Based, First Preference (EB1) Category: The EB-1 category remains current for all countries of chargeability including India and China.
2.     Employment-Based, Second Preference (EB2) Category: The cutoff date for EB2 India has advanced from August 1, 2010, to December 01, 2010. EB2 China moves ahead to May 01, 2017.  The EB2 category remains current for all other countries of chargeability. All other countries are current.
3.     Employment-Based, Third Preference (EB3) Category: The cutoff date for EB3 India has moved from February 1, 2011, in April 2021 to November 01, 2011 in June 2021, visa bulletin. For China, the date has advanced to September 01, 2018. All other countries are current
4.     Employment-Based, Certain Religious Workers Category: This category remains current for the majority of the countries including India and China. The cutoff date for El Salvador, Guatemala, and Honduras has advanced to November 1, 2018 while for Mexico it has advanced to November 15, 2019.

Family-Based Applications: USCIS has again chosen to the Dates for Filing chart for family-based application except F21 applicants may file using the Final Action Dates chart which is current for countries of chargeability.

Charlie Oppenheim, Chief of the Visa Control and Reporting Division of the U.S. Department of State held his monthly “Chats with Charlie” on May 12, 2021 stating 262,000 immigrant visa’s still need to be used before the end of USCIS’s 2021 fiscal year (September 30, 2021). This means we should expect both India and China employment-based, second preference (EB2) category to move forward from June 2021 onward.

ILBSG will continue to monitor and report predictions and movements related to the monthly visa bulletin. If you have any questions regarding your priority date, please reach out to an ILBSG attorney today through the MyEsq platform.