Visa Numbers Exhausted for EB-1, EB-2 & Octubre 2022 Retrogression

Visa Numbers Exhausted for EB-1, EB-2 & Octubre 2022 Retrogression

As part of the ongoing lawsuit Pritish Madhavan v. Ur Jaddou, the government recently disclosed important information about employment-based green card visa numbers.

The government revealed visa numbers for EB-1 and EB-2 have been completely used for this fiscal year ending September 30, 2022. It also states visa numbers for EB-3 will also likely be used within the next week.

Individuals hoping to receive their employment-based green cards as part of USCIS’s final push at the end of year should now have a good idea of where they stand. The changes may also impact the ability to file certain adjustment of status applications until October 1, 2022 when next year’s numbers become available. We are monitoring this situation for updates from USCIS.

Adicionalmente, the government has released the Octubre 2022 Visa Bulletin. Notablemente, the visa bulletin contains a significant retrogression for India EB-2. India EB-3 saw some forward movement. After these changes, the final action dates for India EB-2 and EB-3 are now both the same at April 1, 2012. The filing date for India EB-3 is also two months ahead of India EB-2.

This retrogression is due to the large number of individuals who transferred their pending adjustment applications from EB-3 to EB-2 based on a USCIS recommendation earlier this year. While it remains to be seen if India EB-3 outpaces India EB-2 in the coming months, many of these same individuals may again move their adjustment of status back to their EB-3 petition in an effort to have their cases completed earlier if the trend continues.

Should you or your employees have questions about how these changes impact employment-based green card cases, please contact Gee & Zhang LLP.