Visa Bulletin for September 2020

What the State Department said

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

The State Department is required to make the 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 U.S. Citizen and Immigration Services (USCIS) 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 USCIS data, the Visa Office (VO) bases allocations on the minimum annual limits outlined in Section 201 of the INA. On July 31st, USCIS provided the required data to VO.

The Department of State has determined the Family and Employment preference numerical limits for FY-2020 in accordance with the terms of Section 201 of the INA. These numerical limitations for FY-2020 are as follows:

Worldwide Family-Sponsored preference limit: 226,000

Worldwide Employment-Based preference limit: 156,253

Under INA Section 202(a), the per-country limit is fixed at 7% of the family and employment annual limits. For FY-2020 the per-country limit is 26,758. The dependent area annual limit is 2%, or 7,645.