The Department of State released the May 2023 visa bulletin. The visa bulletin summarizes the availability of immigrant visas both for consular processing and adjustment of status applications to be filed in May 2023. The State Department releases both the Final Action Dates and Date of Filing Applications for Employment-Based and Family-Based immigrant visas. The U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) confirms which chart Applicants must use to file their Adjustment of Status Application (AOS). Below, we break down the movement seen in the May 2023 visa bulletin.

Employment-Based Cases

In May 2023, USCIS continues to accept AOS applications for applicants with a priority date that is earlier than the date listed on the Final Action Dates chart, similar to April. For the employment-based first preference category (EB-1), all countries remain current, except for India and China. For Indian and Chinese EB-1 applicants, the cutoff date remains the same as the past few months, at February 1, 2022. The State Department noted an increase in the rest of the world’s demand and visa number use in the EB-1 category. They warn that the increase in demand could cause retrogression in Final Action Dates for China and India in the coming months to hold the number of available visas within the maximum that is allowed under the Fiscal Year (FY) 2023 annual limit.

As predicted in last month’s visa bulletin, due to an increase in demand in the EB-2 category, the State Department has retrogressed Final Action Dates for all countries except China and India in May, in order to keep immigrant visa number use within the annual limit for 2023. The May 2023 visa bulletin notes that both USCIS and the State Department continue to see increased demand in the EB-2 category necessitating further retrogression. For the rest of the world, Mexico, and the Philippines, the cutoff date retrogressed to February 15, 2022, from July 1, 2022. For EB-2 India and China, the Final Action Dates remain the same as in the April visa bulletin at June 8, 2019, for Chinese nationals and January 1, 2011, for Indian nationals.

In the March 2023 visa bulletin, the State Department had forecasted the possibility of imposing Final Action Dates for the third preference category (EB-3) worldwide. In our April visa bulletin article, we noted that the State Department did not repeat this warning. However, now in the May 2023 visa bulletin, the worldwide retrogression in the EB-3 category is upon us. We see a retrogression of 8 months for the rest of the world, Mexico, and the Philippines, to June 1, 2022. The only advancement we see in the EB-3 category is for Chinese nationals. The Final Action Date advanced to April 1, 2019, from November 1, 2018. For EB-3 India, the dates remain the same as the April 2023 visa bulletin, at June 15, 2012. We expect more retrogression in all the employment-based preference categories for the remaining FY 2023 as demand increases without any additional visas available as it was during the pandemic.

Family-Based Cases

In the Family-Based preference categories, we see little to no movement in the May 2023 visa bulletin. USCIS will continue to accept AOS applications based on the Dates for Filing chart in May. As we saw in the April 2023 visa bulletin, in the May 2023 visa bulletin the Final Action Date in the F-2A Family-Based category (spouses and unmarried children (under age 21) of U.S. green card holders) is no longer “current.” For all countries except Mexico, the Final Action Date is September 8, 2020. For Mexico, the Final Action Date in the F-2A category is November 1, 2018. Although the “Final Action Dates” for the F-2A category are no longer current, the “Dates for Filing” remain listed as “current,” meaning that spouses and unmarried children of U.S. green card holders can still file their AOS applications for now. Despite still being able to file applications, cases under the F-2A preference category will NOT be adjudicated until the priority date is current.

For the rest of the preference categories, we only see small movements. In the Dates for Filing chart for the F-1 category (unmarried children (age 21 and older) of U.S. citizens), we see a change of 3 months and 3 weeks in the General Category, China, and India to January 1, 2017, and no change for Mexico and the Philippines. In the F-3 category (married children of U.S. citizens), we see a 3-month change in Dates for Filing for the General Category, China, and India to February 8, 2010; and no change for Mexico and the Philippines. In the F-4 category (siblings of U.S. citizens), we see a 1-month and 2 weeks change for the General Category and China to February 1, 2008, and no change for India, Mexico, and the Philippines. Finally, there was no movement in the F-2B category (unmarried children (age 21 or older) of green card holders) in the May 2023 visa bulletin.

We continue to monitor and report predictions and movements related to the monthly visa bulletin. If you have questions regarding your priority date, please feel free to contact us. We put our extensive experience and expertise to work for you to ensure you get the right advice.

May 2023 Visa Bulletin Visa Bulletin