The Department of State’s June Visa Bulletin on a whole brought relatively few changes of note.

Progress was made in the EB-2 category, where priority dates for Indian nationals advanced six months from April to October 1, 2008. Similarly, Chinese nationals experienced forward movement of one year in priority dates, with the Department of State (DOS) now processing cases with priority dates of June 1, 2013 or before.

The EB-3 category remains virtually unchanged across all areas, with the exception of the Philippines which retrogressed nearly two and half years from July 2007 to January 2005. Filipinos whose immigrant petitions were filed under the EB-3 skilled and professional workers category are now subject to a ten-year retrogression backlog.

In the EB-5 category, Chinese nationals with approved I-526 petitions carrying a priority date of May 1, 2013 or earlier are now current.  Those with later priority dates will have to wait until their number is called and there are no timeline estimates available at this time.

Those individuals that have been impacted by a visa retrogression of any kind are encouraged to check the DOS Visa Bulletin each month in order to see if visa processing dates have moved under their approval category.