US September 2024 bulletin: EB3 visa — What are the waiting time for Indians, dates, preferences & all you need to know

US September 2024 visa bulletin: The United States Department of States website has released its visa bulletin for September 2024, notifying of the likely wait times for those seeking EB-3 category visas to the country.

For most countries, including the Philippines and Mexico, wait times have been extended for up to one year, with the priority date slipping back to December 1, 2020. Applicants from India and China, however, will not see any such delays, with priority dates kept at February 1, 2022, and November 1, 2022, respectively, as per the latest data.

All You Need To Know

• Applicants for EB-3 visas are those seeking employment-based green cards to the US.
• The website attributed the backlogs to increased number of applications, and back-up of applications against older pending ones.
• To apply, your priority date must be either on or before the cut-off date listed next to the country-wise visa category.
• As per the US Customers and Immigration Service (USCIS) website, the priority date usually implies is the date by which when the immigrant petition should be properly filed for processing by the US Department of Labor. While the cut-off dates, estimates the time it may take to approve your application — this keeps moving.
• All priority dates, deadlines and country-wise information for September 2024 can be found on the US State Department website here.
• The September 2024 visa bulletin also has details regarding the family-sponsored visa applications, immigrant visa applications and diversity visa applications.

Employment-based Preferences Are As Follows:

• First: Priority Workers comprise 28.6 per cent of the worldwide employment-based preference level, plus any numbers not required for fourth and fifth preferences.
• Second: Members of the Professions Holding Advanced Degrees or Persons of Exceptional Ability comprise 28.6 per cent of the worldwide employment-based preference level, plus any numbers not required by first preference.
• Third: Skilled Workers, Professionals, and Other Workers comprise 28.6 per cent of the worldwide level, plus any numbers not required by first and second preferences, not more than 10,000 of which to "*Other Workers".
• Fourth: Certain Special Immigrants comprise 7.1 per cent of the worldwide level.
• Fifth: Employment Creation comprises 7.1 per cent of the worldwide level, of which 32 per cent are reserved. Reservation for fifth level are: 20 per cent for qualified immigrants who invest in a rural area; 10 per cent for qualified immigrants who invest in a high unemployment area; 2 per cent for qualified immigrants who invest in infrastructure projects. The remaining 68 per cent are unreserved and are allotted for all other qualified immigrants.

Final Action Dates for Employment-based Preference Cases

In the table above, "C" means current, i.e., numbers are authorised for issuance to all qualified applicants; and "U" means unauthorized, i.e., numbers are not authorized for issuance.

Dates for Filing of Employment-based Visa Applications

In the table above, “C” indicates that the category is current, and that applications may be filed regardless of the applicant’s priority date. The listing of a date for any category indicates that only applicants with a priority date which is earlier than the listed date may file their application.