NOVEMBER 2018 VISA BULLETIN: TRENDS AND PREDICTIONS

The Department of State has just issued the November 2018 Visa Bulletin. This is the second Visa Bulletin of Fiscal Year 2019.  This blog post analyzes this month's Visa Bulletin.

November 2018 Visa Bulletin

Table A: Final Action Dates -- Applications with these dates may be approved for their Green Card (Permanent Residency card) or Immigrant Visa appointment.

EB  Class	All Other	CHINA	INDIA	PHIL'PNES
EB-1	01APR17	01JUN16	01JUN16	01APR17
EB-2	C	15MAY15	26MAR09	C
EB-3	C	01JUN15	01JAN09	08JUN17

Table B: Dates for Filing -- The DOS may work on applications with these dates. But the Visa cannot be approved until the date is current per Table A.

EB  Class	All Other	CHINA	INDIA	PHIL'PNES
EB-1	01JUN18	01OCT17	01OCT17	01JUN18
EB-2	C	15JUN15	22MAY09	C
EB-3	C	08AUG15	01OCT09	01JUL17

MU Law Analysis (all references are to Table A unless noted)

All Other, Mexico: Unfortunately no movement. Movement should start again in the next month or two.

China: The Chinese dates barely moved in November. We expect the slow/no progress to be standard in the first part of FY 2019.

India: The Indian dates did not move in November. We expect the slow/no progress to be standard in the first part of FY 2019. After that we expect slow, but regular progressions.

Philippines: The EB-3 date moved up by week, which is a good sign, considering most other categories in this month’s Visa Bulletin did not progress. Over the course of FY2019, we should eventually see the EB-3 priority date extend into CY2018, both in Tables A and B.