December 2009 Visa Bulletin

The December 2009 visa bulletin was released yesterday.

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

November and December bulletins had literally no movement for EB2 India and just 7 days movement for EB3 applicants from India. October visa bulletin, 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 and EB3 applicants from India as the dates has not moved or had moved very less by matter of days in 2 consecutive bulletins.

Things to note are: The date refers to your priority date. For example, for EB2 India, if your priority date eariler than 22 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-2010: 226,000
Employment based green card limit for FY-2010: 140,000

Under INA Section 202(A), the per-country limit is fixed at 7% of the family and employment annual limits. For FY-2010 (1 oct 2009 to 30 sept 10) -- the per-country limit is 25,620.Basically, only 25,620 green card applicants will be granted permanent residency in FY 2010, for national origin of India, for family and employment categories.

October is the start of the new fiscal year 2010 for visa and green card.

Reference: http://www.travel.state.gov/visa/frvi/bulletin/bulletin_4587.html