According to Charles Oppenheim, Chief of the Visa Control and Reporting Division, U.S. Department of State, the following are his predictions for immigrant visa number movement from November 2016:
EB-1 China, EB-1 India, and EB-1 Worldwide: These categories will remain current in November and for the foreseeable future. A retrogression of the EB-1 category is not expected for the first half of the fiscal year.
EB-2 Worldwide: This category will remain current in November and retrogression is not expected in the foreseeable future. It is likely that EB-2 India will advance at a four month pace and that in November, EB-2 India will advance nine months to November 1, 2007. Also, it is predicted that numbers will continue to advance in this category for the foreseeable future.
EB-2 China: This category moved forward by four months to July 15, 2012, and it is likely to reach at least September 2012 by February 2017.
EB-3 China: This category advanced three months to April 15, 2013. EB-2 China was previously up to September 2012, and is likely to recover to that date no later than February 2017.
EB-5 China: This category advanced two weeks, with a November final action date of March 8, 2014. Since this category was only temporarily reauthorized, absent congressional action prior to issuance of the December Visa Bulletin, the EB-5 China Regional Centers will most likely see it as “unavailable” for December. If that occurs, the DOS will provide guidance as to the final action date.
EB-4 El Salvador/Guatemala/Honduras: This category advanced to July 15, 2015. However, any forward movement in the final action date will be slow.
EB-4 India and EB-4 Mexico: These categories remain current.