U.S. announces new changes to Green Card & Work Visas from Dec 2024

Highlights: US releases new updates to the Green Card and Employment-Based Visas from December 2024

• The US Department of State has released the December visa bulletin with updates on the availability of EB-visa categories.
• The new visa policies are focused on employment-based visa categories, mainly for Indians.
• The updated cut-off deadline will be applicable for Green Card applicants and adjustment of status applicants.
• The cap count for the US family-sponsored visa application for FY 2024 is 226,000.

 

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Cut-off dates for US Employment-based visas

The Dates for Filing remains unchanged from November. The Final Action Date functions as queue on the basis of the visa category and nationality of the applicant. These dates estimate the waiting time for application approval, leading to US Green Card.

The table below lists the cut-off dates of Employment-Based visas for December:

Type of Visa	Change in Final Action Date
EB-1( Priority workers)	February 01, 2022 (Unchanged)
EB-2 (Advanced Degree Professionals)	Advanced by two weeks to August 01, 2012
EB-3 (Professionals and Skilled Workers)	Advanced by one week to November 08, 2012
EB-3 (Other workers)	Advanced by one week to November 08, 2012
EB-5 (Immigrants investors)	January 01, 2022 (Unchanged)

 

 

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Changes to the US family-sponsored visa applications

The December 2024 visa bulletin also highlights the preference categories for family-sponsored visas in the US. The categories are:

• First Preference (F1): Unmarried children of US citizens
• Second Preference (F2): Spouses (F2A) and unmarried children (F2B) of permanent residents.
• Third Preference (F3): Married children of US citizens
• Fourth Preference (F4): Siblings of adult US citizens

The cap count for family-sponsored category visas is 226,000 for the fiscal year 2024. Each country has a limit of 7% of the total annual family-sponsored and EB visa preference limits.

 

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