The Department of State released the January 2024 visa bulletin. The visa bulletin summarizes and provides an overview of the immigrant visas available in January 2024. The State Department releases this information in two charts: the Final Action Dates and Date of Filing charts for Employment-Based and Family-Based immigrant visas. For Applicants in the United States and filing for Adjustment of Status, the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) each month confirms which chart Applicants must use to file their applications. In January 2024, USCIS confirmed Applicants may use the Date of Filing both for Employment and Family-Based cases. Below, we break down the movement seen in the January 2024 visa bulletin.

Employment-Based Preference Categories

In the January 2024 Employment-Based Visa bulletin, we see some exciting advancements in most categories. The most exciting is for EB-1 India. Although the Department of State and USCIS have been projecting movement towards the beginning of the second quarter, it had seemed too good to be true while seeing the retrogression observed in the previous visa bulletins in this fiscal year.

As mentioned above, we see the biggest advancement in the first preference category (EB-1, Priority Workers) for Applicants from India in both the Final Action Dates Chart and in the Date of Filing Chart. In the Final Action Dates chart the dates for EB-1 India advance by over three years and eight months from January 1, 2017, to September 1, 2020. In the Date of Filing Chart, the dates advanced by over one year and six months to January 1, 2021. Along with India, we see movement for China in the same category. For EB-1 China the dates advance by over four months to July 1, 2022, in the Final Action Dates chart, and in the Date of Filing Chart, the dates advance by five months to January 1, 2023. For the rest of the world, the dates continue to be current allowing Applicants to file their Adjustment of Status application and for USCIS to continue issuing green cards for pending cases.

For EB-2, Members of the Professions Holding Advanced Degrees or Persons of Exceptional Ability category, we also see modest advancements. In the Final Action Dates chart, for EB-2 India, the dates advance by two months, to March 1, 2012. For China, the dates advance by about nine weeks, to September 1, 2020. For the rest of the world, the dates advance by three and half months, to November 1, 2022. In the Date of Filing Chart, we see advancement for China and the rest of the world. The dates for India stay the same as in the December 2023 visa bulletin, at May 15, 2012. For China, the dates advance by five months, to June 1, 2020, and for the rest of the world, the dates advance by six weeks, to May 15, 2012.

We continue to see more modest advancement in the EB-3, Skilled Workers, Professionals, and Other Workers. In the Final Action Dates Chart, for China the dates advance by over seven months, to September 1, 2020, and for India the dates advance by one month, to June 1, 2012. For the rest of the world, the dates advance by eight months, to August 1, 2022. In the Date of Filing Chart, the dates remain unchanged from the December 2023 visa bulletin for India and the rest of the world. For China, the dates advance by ten months, to July 1, 2021.

Family-Based Preference Categories

Similar to the Employment-Based charts, we see modest advancements in the Family-Based charts. Below is the breakdown of advancements we see in the Final Action Chart.

For F2A, Spouses and Children of Permanent Residents, the dates in the Final Action Date chart advanced by approximately eight months, to November 1, 2019. In the F2B, Unmarried Sons and Daughters (21 years of age or older) category, for the world excluding Mexico and the Philippines, the dates advance by nine days, to October 1, 2015. For Mexico, the dates advance by over a year and a half to October 22, 2003, while for the Philippines the dates remained the same, at October 22, 2011. In the F3, Married Sons and Daughters of U.S. Citizens category, the dates for Mexico advance by more than five months to September 8, 1998, while we see no change for the Philippines from the December visa bulletin, at June 8, 2002. For the rest of the world, the dates advance by over three months, to April 22, 2009. In the last category, F4, Brothers and Sisters of Adult U.S. Citizens, we see some advancement for everyone except Mexico, which stayed the same as the December visa bulletin, at September 15, 2000. In the F4 category, for China and the rest of the world, the dates advance by one month, at May 22, 2007. For India, the dates advance by approximately a month to November 15, 2005. Finally for the Philippines, the dates advance by almost two months, to October 15, 2002.

We continue to monitor and report 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.

USCIS Visa Bulletin