Hello, I am in the ROW EB3 category, with a Priority Date of January 2012. I have been through your blog (and that is one of the best one I have visited regarding information about green cards, good job!) and understood that the big jump in EB3 ROW over the last few months won't be repeated any time soon. Is that a yearly pattern before the end of the FY? With a PD of 01/2012, and considering that we are today at 01/2009 and the trend of the last 2 years, any idea how long it will take (I am guessing around 2 to 3 years)? Since 2009 to 2011 was the peak of the financial crisis, is it possible that less people applied for a green card, so USCIS will be faster at processing cases than it it for PD 2006-2008 for example? Thanks again for your help and make this whole immigration thingy a bit more clear and transparent :)

Thank you zorkaxo. One of the goals of the site is to make complex things easier for everyone to understand. Visa allocation is based on supply and demand. Supply is typically fixed at 140,000 per year (For all categories) plus any visas which were unused by FB category. The demand is changing every month and it is hard to estimate. If dates moved by 2 years last year does not mean that it would continue to move at two years in next year (since demand can change every month). We would have to wait for latest version Of I-485 pending inventory to estimate EB3ROW movement. It should hopefully be released in few weeks.

Thank you Amazon for the reply. [quote=Amazon;2329]We would have to wait for latest version Of I-485 pending inventory to estimate EB3ROW movement. It should hopefully be released in few weeks.[/quote] Those VB are usually published the 10th of each month: is that correct? Any ETA when the GC calculator will work for me (i.e EB3ROW with PD of 01/2012?) as it currently shows "Based on June 2013 data, this category could start moving forward in Oct/Nov VB. We are currently calculating how far it can move". I just want to get a hint if it will take 1 year, 2 years or more than 3 years. Thanks!!

VB is published every month. I-485 pending inventory is published once every 3 months. ETA would probably be after the I-485 pending inventory is released (since it would have actual demand).