Visa Bulletin for January 2010 released

The US Department of State has released the new Visa Bulletin for January 2010. In family-based categories, there is very slight movement forward, but just by a few weeks or months in most categories.

Employment-based categories remain "Current" for all 1st preference applicants, and for 2nd preference from Mexico, Philippines, and countries other than India and China. EB-2 for China moves forward by 1 month, and EB-2 for India is unchanged from last month. This means that India EB-2 has stayed the same sinced October 2009.  

3rd preference categories change slightly from last month. EB-3 for China, Philippines and all other countries move forward 2 months.  Mexico advances 1 month and India by almost 2 months.

H-1B cap reached for FY2010?

USCIS has updated the H-1B cap count. As of December 8, CIS has received approximately 61,500 cases against the regular (non-Master's) H-1B cap of 65,000. However, since CIS sets aside up to 6,500 of this 65,000 for nationals of Chile and Singapore, it is possible that they will stop accepting other H-1B petitions soon, if not already. We are still filing new petitions, but with fingers crossed that they are not too late. If you need to file, please do so ASAP.

For more information, see the previous blog posts here.