Visa Bulletin for August 2006

What the State Department said

Retrogression of family and employment cut-off dates

For August, it has been necessary to retrogress many of the cut-off dates in the Family-sponsored and Employment-based visa categories. This has been done in an effort to hold the issuance levels within the applicable annual numerical limits for the affected categories. Those retrogressions are listed below:

Worldwide: Family 1st (to 01JAN97)

China: Family 4th (to 01JUL94)

India: Employment 2nd has become “Unavailable”; Employment 3rd (to 01APR01)

Mexico: Family 3rd (to 01JAN81) and Family 4th (to 01JAN93)

Philippines: Family 2B (to 01DEC92) and Family 3rd (to 01DEC85)

Immigrant visa availability for september

Immigrant visa number use is approaching the annual limits for the year in many categories, and the supply of numbers remaining for allocation is limited. Therefore, for September there is increased possibility of additional retrogressions of cut-off dates such as those experienced in August. Readers should not assume visa availability until the cut-off dates are announced. Categories which could experience retrogressions are:

Worldwide: Employment 4th

China: Employment 2nd and 3rd

India: Employment 1st

Mexico: Employment 3rd

Schedule a visa availability during FY-2007

A total of 50,000 numbers were provided for use in the Schedule A (EX) visa category which was established last May. Visa demand in this category is approaching that limit, and may require the establishment of a cut-off date as early as October. Once all 50,000 numbers have been made available under the current limitation, processing under this category will end.

Determination of the numerical limits on immigrant required under the terms of the immigration and nationality act (INA)

The State Department is required to make a determination of the worldwide numerical limitations, as outlined in Section 201(c) and (d) of the INA, on an annual basis. These calculations are based in part on data provided by the Citizenship and Naturalization Service regarding the number of immediate relative adjustments in the preceding year and the number of aliens paroled into the United States under Section 212(d)(5) in the second preceding year. Without this information, it is impossible to make an official determination of the annual limits. To avoid delays in processing while waiting for the CIS data, the Visa Office (VO) bases allocation on the minimum annual limits outlined in Section 201 of the INA.

The Department of State has now determined the family and employment preference numerical limits for FY-2006 in accordance with the terms of Section 201 of the INA. These numerical limitations for FY-2006 are as follows:

Worldwide Family-Sponsored preference limit: 226,000

Worldwide Employment-Based preference limit: 143,949

Under INA Section 202(A), the per-country limit is fixed at 7% of the family and employment annual limits. For FY-2006 the per-country limit is 25,896. The dependent area annual limit is 2%, or 7,399.