Surprise Revision to the October Visa Bulletin

This is a follow up to our Article about a major systematic change to how the Visa Bulletin works.  The change was made to eventually allow all would be applicants to file their I-485 application before their priority date is current.

In a surprise move, the Department of State just revised some of the cutoff dates under the “Dates for Filing” in the October Visa Bulletin (the system will still work the way we described it in our 09/09/15 article):

• The China EB2 cutoff date was changed from 05/01/14 to 01/01/13;
• The India EB2 cutoff date was changed from 07/01/11 to 07/01/09; and
• The Philippines EB3 and “Other Workers” cutoff date was changed from 01/01/15 to 01/01/10.

The Department of State has not indicated whether these cutoff dates were revised to lessen a surge of application reaching USCIS in October, or if it was done for other reasons.

Unfortunately, this revision means some applicants who expected to file their I-485 in October will no longer be able to.  ILG clients who have already submitted documents for their I-485 application, but can no longer file in October, may keep those documents with ILG.  ILG will retain these documents until they can be used (i.e., for filing in November or later).