The Visa Bulletin is a vital tool for anyapplicant who is qualified to receive an immigrant visa (green card) becausethe Visa Bulletin notifies applicants as to whether they are eligible toreceive a visa number in a particular month.
Here are the top 10 things one needs to knowto understand the Visa Bulletin:
1. The employment-based (EB) visa has its ownsection on the Visa Bulletin where it is divided into its 5 preferencecategories. Every EB visa applicant falls into 1 of the 5 preferencecategories.
2. There are four markings on the EB visa chartto know:
a. C: The category iscurrent, and every eligible applicant is eligible for a visa number.
b. Final Action Date (FAD): Only those with priority dates before theFAD will be approved and issued an immigrant visa or green card.
c. Dates of Filing (DOF): Those with priority dates before the DOF maybe able to file their I-485 or submit their civil documents to the NVC inpreparation for becoming current on the FAD.
d. U: The category isunavailable, and no applicants may receive a number.
3. No country mayreceive more than 7% of the annual worldwide visas available.
4. Some countries have their own FAD because theyare in danger of going over the 7% limit.
5. Retrogression is when a FAD moves backwards chronologicallyon the next month’s Visa Bulletin, making less visa numbers available for aspecific category in the coming month.
6. The EB visa and its preference categories allhave annual caps that cannot be exceeded.
7. The Department of State (DOS) cannot allocatemore than 27% of the total EB visa numbers available for the entire year in onequarter of the year. There is also a 10% limit on each month.
e. EXAMPLE:There are 140,000 EB visa numbers for the year, then 14,000 may be given out ina month and 37,800 may be given out in a quarter.
8. The 7% per country limit may be set aside ifdemand for an EB preference category is less than the visa numbers availablefor that quarter. This only lasts until the end of the quarter.
9. If an EB preference category has a “C” markingfor every country, then that is an indication that the DOS is issuing visanumbers regardless of an applicant’s country for that quarter.
10. If the DOS runs out of a category before theend of the year, then the DOS will stop honoring requests for visanumbers. The category will become unavailable on the Visa Bulletin until thenext government fiscal year begins.