December 2022 Visa Bulletin
The Department of State has released the December 2022 Visa Bulletin for Employment and Family Based green card applications. To be eligible to file an employment-based adjustment of status application for December 2022, you must have a Priority Date that is earlier than the date listed on the chart here for your preference category and country. In the coming days, USCIS is expected to announce on its own Visa Bulletin web page the cutoff dates for acceptance of adjustment of status applications next month. That announcement will clarify whether USCIS will accept adjustment of status applications based on the Final Action dates chart or the Dates for Filing chart.
Highlights of the December 2022 Visa Bulletin:
EB-1 China and EB-1 India Final Action dates will remain current, including India and China.
EB-2 Worldwide (all other countries) will retrogress to November 1, 2022.
EB-2 China will remain unchanged at June 8, 2019.
EB-2 India will retrogress by more than six months to October 8, 2011.
EB-3 Worldwide (all other countries) Professional/Skilled Workers will remain current.
EB-3 China Professional/Skilled Workers will advance by six weeks to August 1, 2018.
EB-3 India Professional/Skilled Workers will advance by more than two months to June 15, 2012.
EB-3 Worldwide Other Workers will remain unchanged at September 8, 2022. China and India Other Workers will remain at November 1, 2015 and July 1, 2012, respectively.
EB-5: For the EB-5 Unreserved categories (C5, T5, I5, and R5), China and India cutoff dates will remain at March 22, 2015 and November 8, 2019, respectively, and all other countries will remain current. The EB-5 “Set-Aside” categories (Rural, High Unemployment, and Infrastructure) will remain current.
KEY TERMS
Priority Date (Employment-based): the date your immigrant petition (I-140 petition) was filed, or if you were subject to the PERM Labor Market Test process, the date the Labor Certification was filed with the Department of Labor.
Priority Date (Family-based): the date your immigrant petition (I-130 petition) was filed.
Preference Category (Employment-based): First Preference is EB-1 Priority Workers (i.e. Extraordinary Ability, Outstanding Researcher, or Multinational Manager petitions), Second Preference is EB-2 Members of the Professions Holding Advanced Degrees or Persons of Exceptional Ability; Third Preference is EB-3 Skilled Workers, Professionals, and Other Workers, Fourth Preference is Certain Special Immigrants, and Fifth Preference is EB-5 Employment Creation.
Preference Category (Family-based): First Preference is Unmarried Sons and Daughters of U.S. Citizens, Second Preference is Spouses and Children, and Unmarried Sons and Daughters of Permanent Residents broken down to F2A (Spouses and Children of Permanent Residents) and F2B (Unmarried Sons and Daughters (21 years of age or older) of Permanent Residents), Third Preference is Married Sons and Daughters of U.S. Citizens, and Fourth Preference is Brothers and Sisters of Adult U.S. Citizens.
Country: This is the country of your birth, even if you have become a citizen in a different country.
