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Visa Bulletin Advances Slightly; USCIS Continues to Allow Earlier Filing Dates

28 Oct

The U.S. Department of State recently published the Monthly Visa Bulletin for November 2016, reporting slight advancement to the “final action cutoff date” for applicants in most employment-based categories. U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (CIS) has again announced that individuals may use the “Dates for Filing” of certain employment based applications for November 2016.

As a reminder, in October 2015 the DOS began including two separate cutoff dates under backlogged categories. The “filing cutoff date” represents the cutoff date for filing new Applications to Adjust Status to Permanent Resident (green card) with U.S. Citizenship & Immigration Services (CIS). The “final action cutoff date” represents the cutoff date for approval of pending applications. The “final action cutoff date” is the date that was traditionally published each month in the Visa Bulletin and prior to the October 2016 visa bulletin has been the only dates previously used by the CIS in determining filing eligibility.

November 2016 Visa Bulletin

As always, Foster will continue to monitor immigrant visa availability and the procedures that allow for filing Applications to Adjust Status to permanent resident and will provide additional information in future Immigration Updates© and on our firm’s website at www.fosterglobal.com.