EB-1 Visa Bulletin: priority workers, every cut-off since 2002

Every EB-1 retrogression since 2002

• All other countries: August 2018 (26.0 months), August 2019 (21.7 months)
• China (mainland-born): October 2005 (68.0 months), August 2016 (78.0 months), June 2017 (64.0 months), April 2018 (73.9 months), August 2019 (10.2 months), September 2019 (30.0 months), January 2023 (10.0 months)
• India: October 2005 (37.0 months), August 2016 (78.0 months), June 2017 (64.0 months), April 2018 (73.9 months), June 2019 (25.7 months), January 2023 (10.0 months), August 2023 (121.0 months), June 2026 (3.5 months), July 2026 (2.0 months)
• Mexico: August 2018 (26.0 months), August 2019 (21.7 months)
• Philippines: August 2018 (26.0 months), August 2019 (21.7 months)

Who can use EB-1

EB-1 is the employment-based preference for people of extraordinary ability, outstanding professors and researchers, multinational executives and managers. Its annual limit is 28.6 % of the employment limit (about 40,000) plus numbers EB-4 and EB-5 do not use. Most cases start with a PERM labor certification and Form I-140; the priority date is normally the PERM filing date, or the I-140 date where no labor certification is needed.

Your column is your country of chargeability, normally the country of birth. A green card in EB-1 becomes possible in the month the final action date for your column passes your priority date; until then the case waits at USCIS or the National Visa Center.

What the history says about the next months

A line's past speed is the best simple guide to its future, and the State Department itself plans with it. Over the last five years the EB-1 line for most countries cleared 17.2 mo/yr, while India cleared 3.2 mo/yr. Speeds change when demand changes – a surge of new petitions, a change in the law, unused numbers falling from another category in October – so treat any projection as a range, not a date.