SEPTEMBER 2023 VISA BULLETIN

The Department of State has just issued the September 2023 Visa Bulletin.  This is the final Visa Bulletin of Fiscal Year 2023. This blog post analyzes this month's Visa Bulletin.

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	Worldwide	CHINA	INDIA	PHILIPPINES
1st	01AUG23	01FEB22	01JAN12	01AUG23
2nd	01JUL22	08JUL19	01JAN11	01JUL22
3rd	01MAY20	01SEP19	01JAN09	01MAY20
Other workers	01MAY20	01SEP15	01JAN09	01MAY20

Table B: Dates of Filing

The USCIS is expected to use the Table B Dates of Filing chart for I-485 employment-based filings. See: USCIS Visa Bulletin Dates

MU Law Analysis

As is often the case toward the end of the fiscal year, there was not much movement as the USCIS and DOS seek to use the remaining visas in the fiscal year.

EB-3 Other Workers, which is the category for occupations for most occupations, remains retrogressed to 01May2020.  This date, along with all categories, will not advance until October 1, 2023, with the start of the new fiscal year.  Our sense is that when the October 2023 visa bulletin is published, it will show an EB-3 (non-India and non-China) with a mid-2022 priority date.  However, because the Department of State is not forthcoming with their demand and usage data, please assume large error bars around our projection.

EB-2 advanced for all countries, except India and China, which may be good news for EB-2 in the next fiscal year.

Sometime during September, the DOS may announce that all immigrant visas have been used for FY 2023.  Rest assured that this is expected and will not have any bearing on the FY 2024 Visa Bulletin dates.