VISA BULLETIN UPDATE: PHILS EB-3 SHOULD ADVANCE INTO 2015

The Department of State’s Visa Bulletin guru, Charlie Oppenheim, hosts monthly meetings with the American Immigration Lawyers Association.  Charlie Oppenheim is the Department of State’s Chief of the Control and Reporting Division. He is the officer who is responsible for producing the Visa Bulletin each month.

This month’s Check In With Charlie featured predictions about EB2 and EB3, which are the most popular categories for readers of this Blog.  Here are some of this month’s highlights:

Philippine EB-3:  Charlie expects to aggressively move this category into mid/late 2015 before the end of the fiscal year (September 30, 2017).  MU Law believes that the category will continue to be positive, although we do not expect that the significant progression will continue once the Visa Bulletin after the fiscal year, because demand for Philippine EB-3 was heavy in 2016.  Having said that, we do expect continued steady movement forward.

Worldwide EB-3:  This category should continue to be effectively current, with a retrogression of only a few weeks/months.

India EB-2:  Charlie expects minimal movement forward.  Charlie claims that 40 percent of the India EB-2 demand is from India EB-3 upgrades.

India EB-3.  This number will be aggressive advanced because Worldwide EB-3 demand has slowed.  As a matter of process, unused Worldwide EB-3 numbers spill into the slowest EB-3 category (India).