The Department of State released the October Visa bulletin today and it contained great news for individuals affected by retrogression. The new bulletin contains a 2nd chart identified as ” Dates for filing of employment based applications.” This second chart allows for the filing of an I-485 prior to one’s priority date becoming current. This will allow a person to obtain an EAD and AP sooner than expected. For example, if you are from India in EB3 and you have a priority date prior to July 1st 2005, you can file your 485 in Oct. If you are from the Philippines and you have a priority date prior to Jan 1, 2015, you can also file. Contact your attorney at HLG if you think you may qualify under this new bulletin.
The USCIS issued a press release providing more information about this change.
Unfortunately, the priority dates did not progress as rapidly as expected as the Philippines EB3 only moved to Jan 2007 and India EB2 actually retrogressed to May 2005. The all other countries category (ROW) remained virtually current.