How to Read the Visa Bulletin

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Congress established specific quotas for employment based and family based immigrants. Other than "immediate relatives," all other immigrants are subject to quota limitations. "Immediate relatives" are the parents of adult (over 21) U.S. citizens, spouses of U.S. citizens, and minor (under 21) unmarried children of U.S. citizens. These immigrants are never subject to quota limits.

The overall family based quota is approximately 226,000 per year. The overall employment based quota is 140,000 visas per year, plus any visas unused by the family based quota from the previous year, if any. Within these overall quotas, there are sub-quotas, based upon preference classification and country of charge.

Within the family based quota, there are four main subcategories:

the family first preference (unmarried sons and daughters of U.S. citizens) is authorized up to 23,400 visas per year, plus any visas not used by the family fourth preference.
The family second preference category is broken into two sub-categories: A and B. "A" is for spouses and unmarried minor children of green card holders. The "B" category is for adult, unmarried sons and daughters of green card holders. Overall, this category receives up to 114,200 visas, plus any visas not used by the first preference category. Of these, 77% are reserved for the "A" category.
The family third preference category (married sons and daughters of U.S. citizens) is authorized up to 23,400 visas, plus any unused by the second preference category.
The family fourth preference category (siblings of adult U.S. citizens) is authorized up to 65,000 visas, plus any unused by the third preference category.

The employment based quota is divided into five basic categories:

The first employment based preference category (extraordinary ability receives a guaranteed share of 28.6% of the available numbers, or about 40,000 visas, plus any numbers unused by the employment based third, fourth, and fifth preference categories.
The second preference category also receives a guaranteed allocation of 28.6% of the available allocation, again about 40,000 visas, plus all numbers unused by the first preference category.
Similarly, the third preference category (professionals, skilled workers, and unskilled workers) receives a 28.6% allocation, once again about 40,000 visas, plus all numbers unused by the second preference category. Those who fall into the "unskilled worker" classification are limited to 10,000 visas annually.
The fourth preference category (religious workers) is guaranteed 7.1% (or about 9,940 visas). It does not receive any "fall down" numbers from the third preference category.
The fifth preference category (immigrant investors) is guaranteed 7.1% (or about 9,940 visas). It does not receive any "fall down" numbers from the fourth preference category.

Because there are often more qualified applicants than available visas under the quota than visas available, the government must create a waiting list. This list is ordered by each applicant's priority date. There are separate lists for family and employment based, as well as sub-categories within those main classifications.

Once an applicant has established a priority date through the approval of an I-130, I-140, or I-360 he or she should refer to the monthly visa bulletin to determine visa availability. The State Department, in each Visa Bulletin, offers the following instructions:

"the listing of a date for any class indicates that the class is oversubscribed; "C" means current, i.e., numbers are available for all qualified applicants; and "U" means unavailable, i.e., no numbers are available. (NOTE: Numbers are available only for applicants whose priority date is earlier than the cut-off date listed.)"

The Visa Office subdivides the annual preference and foreign state limitations specified in the Immigration and Nationality Act (INA) into four quarterly allotments. The law prohibits the issuance of more than 27% of the annual quota in any of the first three quarters of the fiscal year. Thus, for employment based purposes, the Visa Office of the Department of State (the organization mandated with management of the quota) starts with about 37,800 total visas per quarter for each of the first three quarters. The fourth quarter gets all of the unused visa numbers returned during the first three quarters, plus all remaining visas.

For each quarter, the Visa Office divides the quarterly allocation of roughly 37,800 visas into three monthly allotments of about 12,600 each. This means that only about 12,600 employment based visas are issued each month. This number includes dependents (spouses and unmarried children under 21) of the principal applicants. Historically, there are about 1.1 dependents for every principal. This means that the actual number of principal applicants issued visas each month is slightly less than half the monthly allotment.

Within the monthly allotment, visas are further broken down by preference classification and county of chargeability.

The totals of documentarily qualified applicants that have been reported to VO are compared each month with the numbers available for the next regular allotment and numbers are allocated to reported applicants in order of their priority dates, the oldest dates first.

If there are sufficient numbers in a particular category to satisfy all reported documentarily qualified demand, the category is considered “Current.” For example, if the Employment Third preference monthly target is 5,000 and there are only 3,000 applicants, the category is considered “Current”.

Whenever the total of documentarily qualified applicants in a category exceeds the supply of numbers available for allotment for the particular month, the category is considered to be “oversubscribed” and a visa availability cut-off date is established. The cut-off date is the priority date of the first documentarily qualified applicant who could not be accommodated for a visa number. For example, if the Employment Third preference monthly target is 5,000 and there are 15,000 applicants, a cut-off date would be established so that only 5,000 numbers would be used, and the cut-off date would be the priority date of the 5,001st applicant.

How the employment-based per-country limit is calculated

Section 201 of the INA sets an annual minimum Family-sponsored preference limit of 226,000, while the worldwide annual level for Employment-based preference immigrants is at least 140,000. Section 202 sets the per-country limit for preference immigrants at 7% of the total annual Family-sponsored and Employment-based preference limits, i.e. a maximum of 25,620.

The annual per-country limitation of 7% is a cap, meaning visa issuances to any single country may not exceed this figure. This limitation is not a quota to which any particular country is entitled, however. The per-country limitation serves to avoid monopolization of virtually all the visa numbers by applicants from only a few countries.

The AC21 removed the per-country limit in any calendar quarter in which overall applicant demand for Employment-based visa numbers is less than the total of such numbers available.

In recent years, the application of the rules outlined in AC21 has allowed countries such as China – mainland born, India, and the Philippines to utilize large amounts of employment numbers which would have otherwise gone unused.

You should not assume that a preference category's cutoff date will move on a straight linear progression (i.e., one month forward cutoff date movement for each new month). Cutoff date movement depends entirely upon the available supply of visas, a fixed number, and the specific demand, a variable number. Assume the availability of 5,000 visas each month. Assume that in the first month, there are 4,500 qualified applicants available. There would be no cutoff date for this category in month one. In month two, there are 5,500 qualified applicants. This demand would exhaust the 5,000 visa allocated within the quota for the month, as well as the 500 visas left over from the previous month (assuming the same fiscal year). The result would be that all qualified applicants would be able to receive visas. Again, there would be no cutoff date. In month three, assume that due to unusual circumstances (such as proposed legislation) there are 20,000 qualified applicants. Since there are only 5,000 available visas, a cutoff date must be established. The Visa Office would look at the priority dates of all applicants and set the cutoff date as the priority date for the applicant with 5,001st oldest date. The remaining 15,000 applicants would have to wait until the cutoff date moves past their priority dates before they can receive visas. In month four, assume that there are an additional 10,000 qualified applicants. At this point, there are only 5,000 available visas, but 25,000 qualified candidates. The cutoff date would not move forward at all. If this trend continued, the cutoff date might even move backward. Never assume linear movement.