July Check-in with Charlie Oppenheim

AILA's Department of State (DOS) Liaison Committee checks in each month with Charlie Oppenheim, the Chief of the Visa Control and Reporting Division at DOS for updates about Visa Bulletin progress. Oppenheim also provides an analysis of current trends and predicts future visa availability. His predictions of Final Action Date movement are based on his analysis of movement in each category over recent months and cases that are currently pending at the USCIS National Benefits Center. AILA posted the most recent check-in about the July 2020 Visa Bulletin on June 18, 2020. Oppenheim discussed his predictions for movement in family-based and employment-based preference categories.

Family-based Preference Categories:

The July 2020 Visa Bulletin shows that F2A remains current. Oppenheim expects this to continue for the foreseeable future, through the end of FY2020. All other family-based categories continued to advance in July. Oppenheim predicts that movement in the family-based categories will remain consistent with what we have seen in the past few months.

Employment-based Preference Categories:

EB-1:

EB-1 Worldwide (including El Salvador, Guatemala and Honduras, Mexico, Philippines, and Vietnam), remains current and most likely will through the end of FY2020. There are currently nearly 2,000 EB-1 China AOS cases pending at USCIS. EB-1 India advanced significantly this month, from June 8, 2016 to May 8, 2017. This rapid advancement is caused by unused numbers falling from the EB-5 category and the lack of EB-1 Worldwide demand.

EB-2:

EB-2 Worldwide (including El Salvador, Guatemala and Honduras, Mexico, Philippines, and Vietnam), also remains current in July and Oppenheim predicts it will remain current through the end of FY2020. Additionally, EB-2 China advanced one week from November 1, 2015 to November 8, 2015. Furthermore, EB-2 India advanced three weeks, from June 12, 2009 to July 8, 2009. Currently, there is a significant amount of pre-adjudicated demand in these categories and relatively low demand for the rest of the world. Oppenheim claims that EB-2 China and EB-2 India will exceed their per-country limits this year.

EB-3:

EB-3 Worldwide (including El Salvador, Guatemala and Honduras, Mexico, Philippines, and Vietnam) and EB-3 Worldwide Other Workers (including El Salvador, Guatemala and Honduras, Mexico Philippines, and Vietnam) advanced five months from November 8, 2017 to April 15, 2018. There is a large amount of pre-adjudicated demand in EB-3 Worldwide (including El Salvador, Guatemala and Honduras, Mexico, Philippines, and Vietnam). This means that it is more reliable that the advancements will result in visa issuances this fiscal year. However, this category is much closer to reaching its yearly limit than other categories. EB-3 China advanced one week from June 15, 2016 to June 22, 2016. Similarly, EB-3 China Other Workers started to advance again this month, moving one week from July 15, 2008 to July 22, 2008. EB-3 India and EB-3 India Other Workers both advanced two months in July from April 1, 2009 to June 1, 2009.

EB-4:

EB-4 Worldwide (including China, India, Philippines, and Vietnam) remains current while EB-4 El Salvador Guatemala and Honduras advanced 1.5 months from December 15, 2016, to February 1, 2017. Oppenheim expects it to hold at this date for the remainder of FY2020. EB-4 Mexico advanced one week from June 8, 2018 to June 15, 2018. According to Oppenheim, it is too early to predict what will happen in this category for the remaining months of FY2020.

EB-5:

EB-5 Worldwide (including El Salvador, Guatemala, and Honduras, Mexico, and Philippines) Regional and Non-Regional Centers, remains current in July. Similarly, EB-5 India (Regional and Non-Regional Centers) becomes current in July and Oppenheim expects it to remain current through FY2020. EB-5 China (Regional and Non-Regional Centers) advanced one week from July 15, 2015 to July 22, 2015. EB-5 Vietnam (Regional and Non-Regional Centers) advanced three weeks from April 22, 2017 to May 15, 2017.

For More Information:

View publicly available immigrant visa data on the State Department's website here.

Read the July 2020 Visa Bulletin here and our blog post about it here.

This blog post does not serve as legal advice and does not establish any client-attorney privilege. If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to contact our legal team directly.

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This information comes from a news release from the American Immigration Lawyers Association (AILA Doc. No. 14071401).