After the release of the December Visa Bulletin, Charlie Oppenheim, chief of Visa Control and Reporting Division for the U.S. Department of State (DOS), provided his predictions to AILA on the future movement in the employment-based green card categories. They are summarized below:

EB-1 China and India

Charlie predicts that EB-1 China and India will be subject to a final action date “at some point” in the  future. EB-1 India has reached its limit for the year, and EB-1 China is close to doing the same. Charlie does not expect to have unused EB-1 numbers to allocate to other categories.

EB-2 and EB-3 China

Charlie expects the 10-month gap between EB-2 and EB-3 China final action dates to continue to close, but cautions that timing will depend on demand for EB-3 “downgrades.”

EB-2 and EB-3 India

Demand in EB-2 India is high due to demand for EB-3 “upgrades.” Charlie hopes to see EB-2 India advance to 2009, but does not know how long it will take for that to happen. Since EB-2 demand worldwide is high, he does not expect to have many unused numbers to allocate to EB-2 India.

Charlie expects EB-3 India to hold in January, advance up to one week in February, and hold again for a month or two before advancing slowly again over the subsequent months.

EB-2 Worldwide

Based on current demand, Charlie expects a cutoff date to be imposed by July 2017.

EB-3 Worldwide

Charlie is watching demand to see whether it will increase enough to warrant imposing a cutoff date. Currently, demand is remaining steady.