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I recently attended an interview with USCIS for my 'green card' in the EB-3 category.

Although my interview was 'successful', the USCIS officer advised me that he was not able to put my case through to be finalized and have my green card issued because the State Dept had issued their new Visa Bulletin for Aug 2019 and although my category was marked as 'Current' in the July bulletin, its priority date had been 'retrogressed' back to July 2016 in the August bulletin.
Had my interview taken place one day earlier (July 31 instead of August 1), the July priority date would have applied and my green card been issued.

Once this 'retrogression' has taken place, does it sometimes get restored back to its previous state within the next few months, or is it most likely that my category will only once again become 'current' in the next year?
If it's only likely to become current next year - when does 'next year' actually start? Would it be in October like other US immigration related appear to be, or will it only be January 2020?

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    This is a wholly new phenomenon to me. I guess that "year" follows the usual federal meaning of October 1 to September 30. But I have no idea about when the priority date may be changed in one direction or the other.
    – phoog
    Aug 7, 2019 at 11:17
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    @phoog - from a little further research I've found that this tends to happen when the number of issued green card visas gets close to hitting the limit for the year .The State Dept 'retrogresses' the priority dates to slow down the rate of issuing and (I guess) favor older applications over newer ones. If I get any useful info from my immigration attorney any time soon I'll post a self-answer here.
    – brhans
    Aug 7, 2019 at 11:22

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Well, 7 weeks later and the October 2019 Visa Bulletin has been published on the State Dept. web site.

My "chargeability area" in the EB-3 category has been reverted back to "C" for current, so with any luck my visa will be issued some time within the next few weeks.

So - yes, once a 'retrogression' happens it is possible that it could be changed back again within the same calendar year.
It's entirely possible that the 'federal calendar' of October 1 to September 30 applies which Phoog mentioned in a comment.

Update: 10 October and I've just received a notification from USCIS that my Green Card has been issued & mailed to me.

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