Recently the Department of State (DOS) released the December Visa Bulletin and it brought no holiday gifts. All of the dates in the “Dates for Filing” chart remained unchanged whereas dates in the “Final Action Dates” chart stayed the same or barely crept forward. For example, of the 4 categories for Indian nationals, the India EB2 category is the only one that moved forward and it moved forward by a whopping 2 days 🙁 On the good news front, the USCIS has announced that it will accept I-485 filings in Dec using the “Dates for Filing” chart consequently, we are recommending that all persons eligible to file I-485’s in December, do so.
In a sign of dark clouds looming on the horizon, the DOS predicted that retrogression in the “All other countries” categories for EB2 and EB3 is imminent and cut-off dates could occur as soon as January. Typically, this does not occur until near the end of the fiscal year i.e. Aug or Sept. Retrogression remains a major problem for legal immigrants and only a legislative solution can solve the issue. With the current political climate, no relief is expected.