The USCIS has announced that it will not honor the Department of State "Dates for Filing" chart contained in the October Visa Bulletin. Instead, they will utilize the "Final Action Date" chart and only accept 485 filings that have a priority date that is current using said chart.
The Department of State (DOS) has recently released the October Visa Bulletin. This is a critical bulletin as it is the first bulletin for the new fiscal year and provides a glimpse into expectation of priority date movement for the entire fiscal year. In spite of speculation to the contrary, the bulletin includes both the final action and dates for filing charts. We expect the USCIS to announce within the next 2 weeks which chart they will use for October I-485 filings. As expected, the temporary retrogression experienced in a number of categories in August and September were resolved and returned to current and/or positive advancement.
The DOS has released the October Visa Bulletin and it shows a 3 month jump for EB2 India and China but, the movement for EB3 was less than a month and the pace remains discouraging for employers and beneficiaries alike. Included in the Visa bulletin was the DOS's look into its crystal ball and for the EB3 category, they are predicting movement of approximately 1 month each month for the foreseeable future. More troubling was the prediction that EB2 for India and China would either stagnate or even retrogress in the future. A political solution is needed to address this ever-worsening problem of retrogression.