USCIS has determined that when filing for legal permanent residency, either based on family or employment sponsorship, the Application Final Action Dates chart in the US Department of State (DOS) Visa Bulletin for August 2016 must be used. According to the Visa Bulletin for August 2016, for the employment-based filings for India under the EB-2 category the current priority date for the final action date is November 1, 2004,and for the EB-3 category it is November 8, 2004. For those from mainland China, under the EB-2 and EB-3 categories the current priority date for the final action date is January 1, 2010. For the worldwide category, the EB-2 current priority date is February 1, 2014 and the EB-3 current priority date is March 15, 2016.
The current priority dates for the final action dates for the worldwide category are clearly unusual with the higher EB-2 category being almost two years behind the EB-3 category. However, since the movement of priority dates in the Visa Bulletin chart are as capricious as the wind, those applying for legal permanent residency should not despair.