March 27, 2009
The priority date for the Employment Third Preference (EB-3) Worldwide Category retrogressed to March 1, 2003, and became effective immediately upon issuance of the April 2009 Visa Bulletin. The cut-off date was put in place to reduce future demand. It is highly unlikely the Third Preference category will be available in the near future. Further retrogression or "unavailability" may also occur at any time, warned the State Department.
Whether immigrant visas can be issued by consular posts at interviews this month will depend upon if the post obtained the visa number prior to the announcement of the cut-off. Additionally, USCIS will not approve any adjustments in these categories with cutoff dates before May 1, 2005, unless the visa number already had been assigned. It is unknown if USCIS will reject adjustments that are filed during the month of March based on the March Visa Bulletin issued February 10, 2009. Employment based adjustment of status applications for families could be impacted where the principal alien and dependents have been separately adjudicated and their visa numbers were not reserved before March 9.
Here is a link to the April Visa Bulletin. http://travel.state.gov/visa/frvi/bulletin/bulletin_4438.html.
