The demand for the EB-2 employment-based category is also very high.  As a result of the ongoing high demand for visa numbers for EB-2 India and lack of access numbers from EB-2 worldwide which could have been used for India, the EB-2 India final action date retrogressed to October 1, 2004. The DOS expects that the EB-2 India cutoff date will advance slowly for the rest of the fiscal year, at a pace similar to the EB-3 advancement.

Similarly, the EB-2 and EB-3 employment-based for China final action cutoff date have retrogressed to January 1, 2010. The cutoff dates for EB-2 and EB-3 are expected to remain unchanged for the remainder of the fiscal year, therefore, applicants will have no incentive to downgrade from EB-2 to EB-3.