Visa Bulletin for July 2016

What the State Department said

Oversubscription of the Mexico employment-based fourth (e4) and certain religious workers (SR) preference categories

As readers were advised in the May Visa Bulletin number 92, there has been extremely high demand in the E4 and SR categories, primarily for Juvenile Court Dependent cases filed with U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services for adjustment of status. Pursuant to the Immigration and Nationality Act, this has now required the implementation of E4 and SR Application Final Action Dates for Mexico, which has reached its per-country limit. This action will allow the Department to hold worldwide number use within the maximum allowed under the FY-2016 annual limits.

Visa availability for those countries which are, or will be, subject to a final action date in the employment-based fourth (e4) and certain religious workers (SR) preference categories

INA Section 202 sets an annual per-country limitation for preference immigrants of 7 percent of the worldwide level, to avoid monopolization of the annual limit by applicants from only a few countries.

INA Section 202(a)(5)(A) provides that if total demand will be insufficient to use all available numbers in an Employment preference during a calendar quarter, then the otherwise unused numbers may be made available in that preference without regard to the per-country limits. This provision helps to assure that all available Employment preference numbers may be used. Through late winter, this provision allowed countries with demand in excess of their normal per-country limit to utilize numbers that would have otherwise gone unused. Those countries were El Salvador, Guatemala, and Honduras.

By April, the level of worldwide Employment Fourth preference demand had increased to the point where there was sufficient demand to fully utilize the FY-2016 worldwide preference limit. It therefore became necessary to impose a final action date on those countries which had already reached their per-country limit, followed by those which would reach their limit in the coming months.

Readers should be aware that the establishment of the Employment Fourth preference Final Action date of January 1, 2010 does not mean that applicants are now subject to a wait in excess of six years. That Final Action Date is intended only to stop any further use of numbers by applicants from those countries under the FY-2016 annual limit, not to indicate how long it will be before applicants will be eligible for final action.

What are the Employment Fourth Final Action Dates likely to be for October when the FY-2017 annual limits take effect?

Mexico: The Employment Fourth Preference category will become CURRENT for October.

Visa availability in the coming months

FAMILY-sponsored categories (August and September)

Worldwide dates:

F1: Up to two months

F2A: One or two weeks

F2B: Four to six weeks

F3: Up to two weeks