June Visa Bulletin 2009 : Visa Numbers Retrogress for EB2 India Category

June 2009 visa bulletin is out. The cutoff date for India in the EB2 category has retrogressed to January 1, 2000. The June Visa Bulletin will become effective as of June 1st. Thus, the May Visa Bulletin, with an EB2 India cutoff date of February 15, 2004 remains effective through May 31, 2009. So applicants with priority date before February 15, 2004 should rush their applications as soon as possible.

DOL claims that high level of demand in the EB2 India category, and the need to keep within the annual limits is set by law. The DOS also stated that it is currently not possible to estimate whether this retrogression will continue for the rest of the fiscal year. Cut off date in EB-2 category is current for ROW, where as it is 15 Feb 05 for natives from China Mainland. Looking at past trend, we can see retrogression in dates for natives from China in coming visa bulletins.

It should also be noted that last month DOL announced that visa numbers in EB3 category will be unavailable for rest of the fiscal year. If dates will keep on retrogressing, wait for green card could be indefinite for applicants from India and China category. I wonder, if we do not see any immigration reform in Senate regarding employment based category , soon we will see declining number of immigrants opting US as an option to settle and work. Eventually, other countries would benefit from this by opening doors to skilled workers.

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