October 2009 visa bulletin

The October 2009 visa bulletin was released today.

In the Employment based Green Card category, EB3 has new date of 15 APR 01 for India and 22 FEB 02 for China. EB2 for India is 22 JAN 05 and China is 22 MAR 05. EB1 and EB5 categories for all the countries are current.

October bulletin has brought some light for EB3 applicants from India. It was unavailable for last few months. Now, we can start seeing some dates, even though they are in 2001. But, for EB2 applicants from India there is very little movement from 08 JAN 05 in september to 22 JAN 05 in october. You might remember in July it was 01 JAN 00; August it was 01 OCT 03. It is a big disappointment for EB2 applicants from India as it has moved very less by matter of days.

Things to note are:
The date refers to your priority date. For example, for EB2 India, if your priority date eariler than 08 JAN 05, then you are eligible to apply for I 485 and can get your green card soon.
Family based green card limit for FY-2009: 226,000Employment based green card limit for FY-2009: 140,000
Under INA Section 202(A), the per-country limit is fixed at 7% of the family and employment annual limits. For FY-2009 (1 oct 2008 to 30 sept 2009) -- the per-country limit is 25,620.Basically, only 25,620 green card applicants will be granted permanent residency in FY 2009, for national origin of India, for family and employment categories.

This month is the start of the new fiscal year 2010 (oct 2009 onwards). I would have liked it if it had moved further.