The U.S. Department of State has released its September 2024 Visa Bulletin imposing per-country cut-off dates that regulate immigrant visa availability and the flow of Adjustment of Status (AOS) applications and consular Immigrant Visa application filings and approvals. In order to be “current,” the priority date held by a person applying for permanent residence must be before the cut-off date specified in the monthly Visa Bulletin.

To be eligible to file an Employment-Based (EB) AOS application, a foreign national must have a priority date that is earlier than the date listed below for his or her preference category and country of chargeability. The “C” listing indicates that the category is current and that applications may be filed with any priority date.

United States Citizenship and Immigration Services has indicated that the Final Action Dates chart must be used for the September 2024 Visa Bulletin. Final Action Dates have controlled since March 2024. Dates for Filing controlled in January and February.

The September Visa Bulletin retains the India EB-1 cut-off date of February 1, 2022. EB-1 China’s cut-off date remains at November 1, 2022. EB-1 cut-off dates for the Rest of the World, Mexico, and Philippines remain current. The Rest of the World, Mexico, and Philippines EB-2 cut-off dates stay at March 15, 2023. EB-2 India’s cut-off date remains at July 15, 2012, and EB-2 China’s cut-off date remains at March 1, 2020. No forward movement has occurred in the EB-3 India category, which stays at October 22, 2012. The EB-3 China cut-off date also remains unchanged at September 1, 2020. The EB-3 categories for the Rest of the World, Mexico, and the Philippines have moved back one year from December 1, 2021, to December 1, 2020, confirming fears that this category would retrogress further. The category has not become unavailable, however, as the State Department has hinted it might.

Final Action Dates Chart Will Control in September 2024

The Visa Bulletin includes both a Dates for Filing chart and a Final Action Dates chart. The Final Action Dates chart indicates when a priority date is current and I-485 AOS applications or Immigrant Visa applications may be approved and permanent residence granted. The Dates for Filing chart, when followed by USCIS, indicates when intending immigrants may file their AOS applications with U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS).

Each month, USCIS chooses either to follow the Final Action or the Dates for Filing chart. For September 2024, as noted above, the USCIS will follow the Final Action Dates for Employment-Based AOS application filings. Thus, those seeking to file applications for AOS with the USCIS in September 2024 must use the chart for the Final Action Dates shown below.

T&S Takeaway

Other than the one-year retrogression in the Rest of the World, Mexico, and Philippines EB-3 categories, no significant movement has occurred in the September Visa Bulletin.  This appears to confirm the State Department’s plan to implement such changes on a quarterly basis. In line with the State Department’s comment in prior months that, due to high demand in the EB-3 categories for the Rest of the World, Mexico, and the Philippines categories, it may be necessary either to retrogress the final action date further or make the category ‘Unavailable’ in September,  a further one-year retrogression has occurred. This retrogression will probably only last for a month, since the agency’s new fiscal year begins on October 1st and new visa numbers will become available on that date.

The attorneys of Tafapolsky & Smith LLP will monitor and analyze all developments affecting immigrant visa availability, including all statements made by State Department officers before the publication of the relevant Visa Bulletin and will provide immediate updates on any significant developments.