Visa Bulletin for September 2022

What the State Department said

Availability of employment-based visas during september

There has been a steady increase in both USCIS and Department of State demand patterns for employment-based visas during the fiscal year. As a result, most employment-based preference category limits and/or the overall employment-based preference limit for FY 2022 are expected to be reached during September. If at any time an annual limit were reached, it would be necessary to immediately make the preference category “unavailable”, and no further requests for numbers would be honored.

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 reasonable estimates of the anticipated amount of visa numbers to be available under the annual limits, in accordance with Section 203(g) of the INA. On August 2nd, USCIS provided the required data to the VO.

The Department of State has determined the Family and Employment preference numerical limits for FY-2022 in accordance with the terms of Section 201 of the INA. These numerical limitations for FY-2022 are as follows:

Worldwide Family-Sponsored preference limit: 226,000

Worldwide Employment-Based preference limit: 281,507

Under INA Section 202(a), the per-country limit is fixed at 7% of the family and employment annual limits. For FY-2022 the per-country limit is 35,525. The dependent area annual limit is 2%, or 10,150.