U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) announced today that the agency will begin phasing in use of the U.S. Postal Service’s (USPS) Signature Confirmation Restricted Delivery service to mail Green Cards and other secure documents beginning April 30, 2018. As part of the new delivery method, applicants must present identification to sign for their documents upon delivery. - USCIS
Do you wonder if there is an easier way to see how cutoff dates change from month to month? Instead of looking at a bunch of tables with static dates, would you rather see them all in one interactive graph? How about comparing with other categories? 5 years of data on one page?
Well, you can have it all with our free and simple Visa Bulletin Graph. If you have any suggestions or questions, please do let us know. We're always looking for ways to make our tools more useful and easier to use.
USCIS published the pending I-485 inventory with data as of April 2018. We have now updated the green card tracker with the latest information. The I-485 tracker includes data from USCIS' pending I-485 inventory as well as DOS' pending consular processing cases.
The Department of State has released the Visa Bulletin for May 2018. For historical data, predictions and more information please refer to our Visa Bulletin Toolbox.
"USCIS has reached the congressionally-mandated 65,000 H-1B visa cap for fiscal year 2019. USCIS has also received a sufficient number of H-1B petitions to meet the 20,000 visa U.S. advanced degree exemption, known as the master’s cap. The agency will reject and return filing fees for all unselected cap-subject petitions that are not prohibited multiple filings.
USCIS will continue to accept and process petitions that are otherwise exempt from the cap." - USCIS
One question lists multiple social media platforms and requires the applicant to provide any identifiers used by applicants for those platforms during the five years preceding the date of application. The platforms listed may be updated by the Department by adding or removing platforms. Additional platforms will be added only if collection is consistent with the uses described in the Supporting Statement and after Office of Management and Budget approval. In addition, the applicant will be given the option to provide information about any social media identifiers associated with any platforms other than those that are listed that the applicant has used in the last five years. - Federal Register
The Department of State has released the Visa Bulletin for April 2018: Significant forward movement for China EB2 and EB3, as well as India EB3 categories. However, both China and India EB1 became overscribed and a cutoff date of January 1, 2012 was imposed on both categories. The table below shows "Final Action (Approval)" cut-off dates and movement from the previous month, for all major employment-based categories. To see filing cut-off dates or family-sponsored categories please go to the Visa Bulletin page linked above. For historical data, predictions and more information please refer to our Visa Bulletin Toolbox.
| Chargeability | Preference | Cut-off Date (Y-M-D) | Movement (Days) |
|---|---|---|---|
| China | Second (EB2) | 2014-08-01 | 236 |
| India | Second (EB2) | 2008-12-22 | 7 |
| ROW | Third (EB3) | C | Current |
| China | Third (EB3) | 2015-06-01 | 198 |
| India | Third (EB3) | 2008-02-01 | 396 |
| Mexico | Third (EB3) | C | Current |
| Philippines | Third (EB3) | 2017-01-01 | 245 |
OVERSUBSCRIPTION OF THE CHINA-mainland born AND INDIA EMPLOYMENT-BASED FIRST (E1) PREFERENCE CATEGORIES
There continues to be an extremely high rate of demand for E1 numbers, primarily for USCIS adjustment of status applicants. Pursuant to the Immigration and Nationality Act, it has been necessary to impose E1 Final Action Dates for these two countries, which have already reached their per-country limit. This action will allow the Department to hold worldwide number use within the maximum allowed under the FY-2018 annual limits. Should the level of worldwide demand for E1 numbers decline, there could be some future movement in this date prior to the end of the fiscal year. - DOS
Data as of October 25, 2017. Notes: All data are based on approved petitions during the fiscal year. Petitions approved in a fiscal year may be filed in previous fiscal years. Per USCIS best practices, units of less than 10 beneficiaries are masked so as to limit the possibility of the de-anonymization of data. "D" represents data withheld to protect privacy. - USCIS
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