09.25.15
This afternoon the U.S. State Department released a revised version of the October 2015 Visa Bulletin, which supersedes the one it released just two weeks ago on September 9. The biggest news is that under the newly created "Dates for Filing Visa Applications Chart," both for family- and employment-based categories, six dates have been rolled back. Under the employment-based categories, the filing visa date for EB-2 China-born has been pushed back from May 1, 2014 to January 1, 2013. The date for EB-2 India-born has been pushed back from July 1, 2011 to July 1, 2009. The dates for EB-3 and for Other Workers for Philippines-born have been pushed back five years to January 1, 2010. For all of those individuals who knew that waiting for a visa would be a long way off, the new filing visa dates announced on September 9 offered hope of filing the Form I-485, the last step in the process, a little sooner. With a filed I-485, there would be more employment flexibility, employment authorization for spouses, and travel permission for the family. With the roll back, many of these hopes have been undone.Under the family-based categories, the filing visa date for FB-1 Mexico-born has been rolled back from July 1, 1995 to April 1, 1995 and the filing visa date for FB-3 Mexico-born has been rolled back from October 1, 1996 to May 1, 1995.For the latest visa bulletin, check out: Visa Bulletin Your Clark Lau LLC team will continue to monitor the situation and keep you up to date as to any further changes and how this may impact your immigration status and options. The above information is for educational purposes only.