Visa Bulletin for May 2016

What the State Department said

Visa availability during the coming months

FAMILY-SPONSORED:

CHINA F4: The level of applicant demand being received has begun to increase. Should this pattern continue, it will be necessary to either hold or retrogress this final action date in late summer. That action would be necessary to hold number use within the overall China Family-sponsored annual limit.

INDIA F4: The amount of demand being reported for applicants with priority dates which are significantly earlier than the established cut-off date has increased dramatically in recent months. As a result, it is likely that this final action date will be retrogressed, possibly as early as June. This action would be necessary to hold number use within the overall India Family-sponsored annual limit.

EMPLOYMENT-BASED:

CHINA E3: There has been an extremely large increase in Employment Third preference applicant demand in recent weeks. This is likely due to the “downgrading” of status by applicants who had originally filed in the Employment Second preference. This has resulted in the Third preference final action date being held for the month of May. Continued heavy demand for numbers will require a retrogression of this date for June to hold number use within the FY-2016 annual limit.

During the past month, there have been extremely high levels of Employment-based demand in most categories for cases filed with U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services for adjustment of status. If this sudden and unanticipated change in the demand pattern continues, it could impact final action dates in the coming months and possibly require corrective action in some.

Oversubscription of the el salvador, guatemala, and honduras employment-based fourth (e4) and certain religious workers (SR) preference categories

There is currently extremely high demand in the E4 and SR categories for applicants from El Salvador, Guatemala, and Honduras. This demand is 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 requires implementing E4 and SR Application Final Action Dates for these countries, which will allow the Department to hold worldwide number use within the maximum allowed under the FY-2016 annual limits. Any forward movement during the remainder of FY-2016 is unlikely although no specific prediction is possible.

A determination as to whether these countries will remain subject to E4 and SR final application dates under the FY-2017 annual numerical limitation will be made in early September. Future visa availability will depend on a combination of demand for numbers being reported each month, and the extent to which otherwise unused numbers become available.

It is extremely likely that the India and Mexico Employment Fourth Preference categories will also become oversubscribed at some point during the summer months.