Visa Bulletin for March 2020

What the State Department said

Oversubscription of the worldwide, el salvador, guatemala, honduras, Mexico, and Philippines employment-based third and third other worker preference categories

As readers were advised in item E of the February Visa Bulletin, there continues to be an extremely high rate of demand for Employment Third (E3) and Third Other Worker (EW) numbers, primarily for USCIS adjustment of status applicants. Therefore, pursuant to the Immigration and Nationality Act, it has been necessary to impose E3 and EW final action dates for the month of March.

The March final action date is 01JAN17 and is being imposed immediately for all future requests for numbers. This action will allow the Department to hold worldwide number use within the maximum allowed under these FY 2020 annual limits. No forward movement of this date is expected in the foreseeable future.

Employment-based fifth preference visa availabilty

There has been a very rapid advancement of the China-mainland born fifth preference final action date for the month of March. This action has been taken in an effort to generate an increased level of demand. Despite the large amount of registered China fifth preference demand, currently there are not enough applicants who are actively pursuing final action on their case to fully utilize the amount of numbers which are expected to be available under the annual limit.

Once large numbers of applicants do begin to have their cases brought to final action, some type of corrective action may be required to control number use within the annual limit. It is important to remember that applicants who are entitled to immigrant status become documentarily qualified, and potentially eligible for interview, at their own initiative and convenience. By no means has every applicant with a priority date earlier than a prevailing final action date been processed for final visa action.