The Department of State today released the May 2013 Visa Bulletin with some good news for EB-3 categories. ROW, China and Mexico have all moved forward by more than five months! The rest of EB-3 and China EB-2 made small progress, while India EB2 remained unchanged. See the table below:
| Chargeability | Preference | Cut-off Date Movement (Days) |
|---|---|---|
| China | Second (EB2) | 44 |
| India | Second (EB2) | 0 |
| ROW | Third (EB3) | 153 |
| China | Third (EB3) | 223 |
| India | Third (EB3) | 14 |
| Mexico | Third (EB3) | 153 |
| Philippines | Third (EB3) | 7 |
DOS offered an explanation for the EB3 advancing trend:
The Employment-based Third preference category cut-off date for most countries has advanced significantly. This has been done in an attempt to generate demand so that the annual numerical limits may be fully utilized, and such movements may continue for the next few months. The rapid movement of cut-off dates is often followed months later by a dramatic increase in demand for numbers. Once such demand begins to materialize the cut-off date movements will begin to slow or stop.
Our visa bulletin tracking graph demonstrated the trend for EB-3, which has been steadily improving (declining curve) since early 2012 for ROW, China and Mexico, but deteriorating for India and the Philippines:
