The start of October means the start of a new fiscal year for the U.S. Department of State, with a new round of immigrant visa numbers for the permanent residency process. USDOS recently released the first Visa Bulletin of FY2017, with some relief in final action dates for several employment-based preference categories as of October 1, 2016:

EB-1 Multinational Managers/Executives, Outstanding Researchers, Extraordinary Ability Aliens:

For Indian and Chinese nationals, the EB-1 category will return to "current". In August 2016, these categories were retrogressed due to high demand, while EB-1 for all other nationalities remained current.

It is expected that there will be high usage of visa numbers for Indian and Chinese nationals throughout October, however EB-1 for all nationalities is expected to remain current for the foreseeable future.

EB-2 Advanced Degree Professionals:

The EB-2 Worldwide category (for nationalities other than India, China, Philippines, Mexico, El Salvador, Guatemala, and Honduras) will return to current. Visa usage in this category will be high in October, however EB-2 Worldwide is expected to remain current during the first half of the fiscal year.

EB-2 for Chinese nationals will be current as of February 15, 2012, advancing the priority date by over two years. EB-2 for Indian nationals will also advance by two years, to a current priority date of January 15, 2007.

EB-3 Professional Workers:

Overall movement in dates for the EB-3 category will not be significant for Worldwide, Indian, or Philippines nationals, advancing by just one month for each category. EB-3 China will see a significant progression to January 22, 2013, advancing the current priority date by three years.

USDOS releases the Visa Bulletin on a monthly basis and the bulletin can be found in its entirety on the DOS website. The employment-based bulletin is separated into two charts: Final Action Dates and Dates for Filing.