The Department of State (DOS) released the October 2023 Visa Bulletin. The visa bulletin summarizes the availability of immigrant visas both for consular processing and adjustment of status applications to be filled in the first month of the new fiscal year (FY), October 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). USCIS confirmed they will accept Employment-Based cases based on the Dates of Filing Action chart. For Family-Based cases, they are accepting petitions based on the Date of Filing Chart. Below, we break down the movement seen in the October 2023 visa bulletin.

Employment-Based Cases

In the October 2023 visa bulletin, the DOS advanced the Employment-Based (EB) dates most, reflecting the new immigrant visas available in the new fiscal year. The DOS notes further movement may be made in the upcoming months as they get a better picture of the visa usage and the demand.

For the Final Action Dates Chart, in the EB first preference category (EB-1), we see the biggest advancement for India. In the August 2023 Visa Bulletin, the dates for India EB-1 retrogressed by 10 years. The number of qualified applicants for India EB-1 exceeded the supply of the number of available visas during that month. Although there was some expectation the dates would advance further during October 2023, the dates advanced a little over five years to January 1, 2017. This movement is still far from the February 1, 2022, dates in the July 2023 Visa Bulletin as noted in the August Visa Bulletin. Hopefully, we see continued advancement in EB-1 India further into the FY. In the rest of the EB-1 categories, we see modest advancement. For China, the dates advance by two weeks, to February 15, 2022. The rest of the world is back to current making visas readily available.

Applicants may file their AOS application using the Dates of Filing Chart in October. To control the number of applications submitted and to focus on clearing the number of applications pending, we see retrogression in the Dates of Filing chart for EB-1 for India. The dates for EB-1 India were retrogressed by three years to July 1, 2019. On the other hand, the dates for China advanced modestly by one month to August 1, 2022.

Moving to the Final Action Dates Chart, in the EB second preference category (EB-2), once again, we see the biggest advancement for India. The EB-2 Final Action Dates for India advance by one year to January 1, 2012. For China, the dates advance by close to three months to October 1, 2019, and for all other countries the dates advance by one week to July 8, 2022. In the Dates of Filing Chart, we see modest movement. For China, the dates advance by almost three months to January 1, 2020. For India on the other hand, the dates advance by two weeks to May 15, 2012, and for the rest of the world, the dates advance by one month to January 1, 2023.

In the EB-3 Professional/Skilled Worker category in the Final Action Date, unsurprisingly, once again we see the biggest advancement for India. The dates for India advance by three years and four months to May 1, 2012. It is still a big contrast between the number for India and the rest of the world including China. For China, we see the dates advance by four months to January 1, 2020, and for the rest of the world, we see advancement by one year and seven months, to December 1, 2021.

For the rest of the world excluding India and China, the Final Action Dates retrogressed by close to two years to May 1, 2020. The Final Action Date for EB-3 China Professional/Skilled Worker advanced by two months, to June 1, 2019, while EB-3 India remains at January 1, 2009. The State Department continues to monitor and adjust the dates based on the number of visas available and the demand. They note further retrogression may come in the upcoming visa bulletins. In the Date of Filing Chart, the dates remain unchanged for India at August 1, 2012. For China, the date advanced a little over 10 months to September 1, 2020. For the rest of the world, the dates were retrogressed by three months to February 1, 2020.

As we are getting back to the normal, pre-COVID era, we are seeing a significant decrease in the number of visas available for this FY. According to USCIS, the Employment-Based FY 2023 limit is 165,000, which is more than the 140,000 annual limit. This is a significant decrease from the annual limits in the last two years. These numbers are reflected in the October Visa Bulletin.

Family-Based Cases

In the Family-Based preference categories, we continue to see an increase in demand. As a result, we see modest movement in the October 2023 visa bulletin.

In the F-2A Family-Based category (Spouses and Unmarried Children (Under Age 21) for China, India, and the Rest of the World, the Final Action Dates advance over one year to February 8, 2019. Again, in this category for Mexican nationals the dates advance by over two and half years to February 1, 2019. For Philippines nationals, the dates advance almost one year to February 9, 2019. The second movement we see in the F2B category (Unmarried Sons and Daughters, 21 years of age or older, of Permanent Residents) for Mexico. The dates advance by five months to January 1, 2002. The rest of the dates and categories remain unchanged from the September 2023 visa bulletin. The next movement we see in the October 2023 Visa Bulletin is in the F-3 category (married children of U.S. citizens) for Mexico. The dates advanced by almost two months to March 8, 1998. As demands increase, we will continue to see the backlog increase.

In October 2023, USCIS will accept Family-Based cases based on the Dates for Filing Chart. As the demand for F2A visas continues, the dates did not return to current as they have during previous fiscal years. The cutoff dates for all countries are set as September 1, 2023, across the board. It is possible for the dates to return to “current’ sometime during the 2024 fiscal year.

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.

October 2023 Visa Bulletin Visa Bulletin