U.S. immigrant visas are issued to foreign nationals who come to the U.S. for permanent residence. To limit the number of people who qualify to receive immigrant visas, U.S. immigration laws have set forth annual visa quotas. A particular visa application process may often take many years to complete from the time the application process begins to the time when the foreign national receives a visa. This lengthy waiting period is caused by the unavailability of visa numbers. To determine whether a visa number is available requires careful reading of the monthly Visa Bulletin published by the U.S. Department of State. To read the Bulletin, an applicant must know the filing date for their I-130 Petition or labor certification application, their country of origin, and their category within family-based or employed-based preferences.
FAMILY AND EMPLOYMENT BASED PREFERENCES
Knowing the preference category under which an applicant falls is vitally important when reading the Visa Bulletin because visa numbers are distributed within a quota system comprising Family-Sponsored and Employment-Based Preferences. Currently, 366,000 visa numbers are authorized each year, including 226,000 for family-based visa and 140,000 for employment-based visas.
Family-Based Preferences
U.S. immigration laws divide the family members into four groups, namely, four preferences. Each group has its own annual quota for visas. Three preferences are set aside for U.S. citizens’ family members, and one preference for family members of lawful permanent residents. The following describes each preference and its corresponding annual visa quota:
F-1 refers to the first family-based preference. To qualify for this preference, the petitioning family members must be U.S. citizens, and the beneficiaries must be their unmarried sons and daughters who are older than 21. Under this preference, 23,400 visa numbers are allocated per year.
F-2 stands for the second family-based preference. The petitioning family members must be lawful permanent residents of the U.S., and only their spouses and unmarried children qualify as beneficiaries. Each year 114,200 visa slots are provided under this preference. It is further split into two sub-categories: F-2A and F-2B. F-2A includes spouses and unmarried children under 21 years old. Under this sub-category, 87,934 visa numbers are available per year. F-2B consists of unmarried adult children (21 and older) and is limited to 26,266 visa slots per year.
F-3 represents the third family-based preference. Under this preference, U.S. citizens are allowed to petition visas on behalf of their married sons and daughters. This category has 23,400 visa numbers available per year.
F-4 stands for the fourth family-based preference. This preference provides U.S. citizens with a means to petition visas on behalf of their siblings. Each year 65,000 visas are issued to sisters and brothers of U.S. citizens.
Additionally, immediate relatives of U.S. citizens, including spouses, parents and unmarried children under 21 years old, are not subject to any numerical limitations. In other words, visa numbers are always available to immediate relatives, and there is really no need to look at the Visa Bulletin as they have no wait times for receiving their visas. The law heavily favors family members of U.S. citizens over lawful permanent residents as illustrated above.
2. Employment-Based Preferences
The quota system also applies to employment-based immigration. The requirements for these visa categories can be a little more complicated compared to the family-based visas. There are five preferences for employment immigration: EB-1, EB-2, EB-3, EB-4 and EB-5. Among them, the first four preferences are based on offer of employment, labor certification and employer’s petition for the employee. The fifth preference is based on employment creation, i.e. a foreign national’s investment and creation of 10 full time jobs. The quotas and the corresponding preference categories are as follows.
EB-1 preference visas are available to “priority workers” who have applied for EB-1A, EB-1B, and EB-1C visas. In order to be eligible for an EB-1 visa, a foreign national must be a person of extraordinary ability in science, art, education, business or athletics, an outstanding researcher or professor, or a multinational manager/executive. These types of visas account for 28.6% of the worldwide employment-based preferences, plus any numbers not used for fourth and fifth preference. Each year, at least 40,040 visas are issued to workers from this category.
EB-2 preference visas are reserved for members of professions who hold advanced degrees or those of exceptional ability. To qualify for this preference, the offered job must require a postgraduate degree or its foreign equivalent (a baccalaureate or the foreign equivalent of a baccalaureate and 5 years of post-baccalaureate and progressive work experience in the field). These visas are capped at 28.6% of the worldwide employment-based preferences, plus any number not used by the first preference category. Like the EB-1 category, 40,040 visa numbers are authorized for applicants from this category per year.
EB-3 preference visas are allocated to skilled workers, professionals, and other workers.
In order to qualify as a skilled worker, the job must require at least 2 years of training or experience and not be of temporary or seasonal nature. The skilled worker must meet the educational, training, or experience requirements of the job opportunity. Relevant post-secondary education may be considered as training for the profession.
In order to qualify as a professional, the offered position must require at least a U.S. baccalaureate or the foreign equivalent and an applicant must be a member of the profession.
The category called other workers is for people performing unskilled labor requiring less than 2 years of training or experience. This work cannot be of a temporary or seasonal nature.
These visas are also capped at 28.6% of the worldwide employment-based preference level, plus any numbers not used by first and second preferences. Like the other categories above, the same number of visas, 40,040, are issued per year to applicants from this category.
EB-4 preference visas are reserved for Certain Special Immigrants such as religious workers. These visas are capped at 7.1% of the worldwide employment-based preferences or 10,000 visa numbers per year.
EB-5 preference visas are reserved for Employment Creation. Noncitizens can qualify for this visa preference if they are investors or the spouses and unmarried children under 21 of investors. In order for a person to qualify as an investor, they must have made the necessary investment in a commercial enterprise in the United States and also plan to create or preserve 10 permanent full-time jobs for qualified U.S. workers. These visas are capped at 7.1% of the worldwide employment-based preference level or 10,000 visa numbers per year.
ESSENTIAL TERMS FOR UNDERSTANDING THE VISA BULLETIN
There are essential terms that aid the understanding of the Visa Bulletin. These terms are often used by USCIS officials, consular officers and immigration attorneys in discussing the visa number availability. To know what they mean before delving into the Visa Bulletin will help save time and truly understand what the applicant is looking at in the Visa Bulletin.
Priority Date: This is the date on which the USCIS received an I-130 Petition in a family-based immigration case or the DOL received the labor certification in an employment-based immigration case. This filing date acts as an applicant's place in the visa number line and initiates the waiting period for the visa number. This date is usually shown in the USCIS receipt notice or the DOL labor certification application.
Final Action Date: This is the date that appears in the Visa Bulletin to show the cutoff date on which the visa number becomes available. The visa applications with the priority dates on or before the cutoff date may be submitted and final decisions may be made on such applications.
Date for Filing: This date shows when the applications in a given preference may be submitted for adjudication though the visa numbers in that category remain unavailable. This date is often 1-10 months before the Final Action Date. For applicants living in the United States, the “dates for filing” chart allows them to apply for a work permit and travel permit simultaneously. This may be particularly valuable for applicants who intend to work in the United States or travel outside the United States while waiting for their applications to be processed.
C: This term stands for “Current” and means no backlog and no wait time. Visa numbers are available in the month. Applicants may submit their applications for adjudication.
U: Opposite to C, U means “Unavailable.” When an applicant finds “U” under a given preference, this indicates visa numbers under that preference category are unavailable for that month. No visas will be processed and issued during the month.
Chargeability Area: This is the applicant’s country of birth. When issued, a person’s visa will be subtracted from the annual quota of visa numbers available to citizens of their country of birth. U.S. immigration laws place limits on the number of immigrants from a particular country; no single country can account for more than 7% of the visa number quota in any particular category. This cap may make a difference if an applicant is a citizen of Mainland China, India, Mexico, the Philippines, Honduras, El Salvador, or Guatemala. Citizens of those countries may have to wait significantly longer.
READING THE VISA BULLETIN
Reading and understanding the Visa Bulletin each month is an important part of the immigrant visa application process. An applicant who knows how to read the Visa Bulletin and understands it will be in a better position to know whether a visa number is available to them and estimate how long their application will take to travel through the application process. Before reading the Visa Bulletin, an applicant must know their priority date, preference category and chargeability area.
To determine whether a visa number is available requires comparison of two dates: the priority date established by the filing of the petition or labor certification and the final action date in the Visa Bulletin under the proper preference category and chargeability area. If the priority date is the same or prior to the final action date in a corresponding preference category and chargeability area, this means a visa number is available to the person during the given month. However, if the priority date is after the final action date, the visa number is not available in the month. The following is an example of how to determine visa number availability.
Reading this chart posted for March 2022 as an example, if a noncitizen is a mainland-Chinese-born person who qualifies under the employment based second preference and their priority date was before March 1, 2019, there would be visa availability for their category during the month of March 2022. Another example will be if a person is a nurse from Guatemala. There would be no backlog, and a visa number for their category would be available.
Though the monthly Visa Bulletin is not rocket-science, correctly reading the Bulletin requires comprehensive understanding of important U.S. immigration law concepts. Knowing the correct visa preferences, priority date and final action date will allow visa seekers to read and understand the Visa Bulletin with ease and help them keep track of their place in the application process and take appropriate actions when their visa number becomes available.
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DISCLAIMER: This Article is for informational purposes only and may not be used in the place of legal advice.