Visa Bulletin for September 2024

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 for FY 2024 are expected to be reached during September, if not sooner. 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.

Retrogression in the employment-based third preference (EB-3) and “other workers” (ew) categories

As readers were informed was possible in Item D of the July 2024 and August 2024 Visa Bulletin, it has become necessary to retrogress the EB-3 final action dates for Rest of World, Mexico, and the Philippines, as well as the EW final action dates for Rest of World and Mexico. The issuance totals in these categories are rapidly approaching the annual limit for FY-2024, necessitating this slowdown of issuance rates. It is anticipated that the final action dates will advance in October 2024; however, date movement will depend on worldwide demand for EB-3 and EW visas and the estimated FY-2025 category limit.

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 July 19th, USCIS provided the required data to the VO.

The Department of State has determined the Family and Employment preference numerical limits for FY-2024 in accordance with the terms of Section 201 of the INA. These numerical limitations for FY-2024 are as follows:

Worldwide Family-Sponsored preference limit: 226,000

Worldwide Employment-Based preference limit: 160,791

Under INA Section 202(a)(2), the per-country limit is fixed at 7% of the combined total family and employment annual limits. For FY-2024 the per-country limit is therefore 27,075. The dependent area annual limit is 2%, or 7,736. Note that these figures do not account for carryover provisions in accordance with INA 203(b)(5)(B). With these carryover visa numbers included, the per-country limit is 27,837 and the dependent area limit is 7,953.

U.s. government employee special immigrant visas (SIVS)

The National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) for Fiscal Year 2024, signed into law on December 22, 2023, may affect certain current and former employees of the U.S. Government abroad applying for SIVs or adjustment of status, as described in section 101(a)(27)(D) of the INA. This does not affect certain Iraqis and Afghans applying for SQ and SI SIVs. Applicants should contact the consular section at which they filed their Form DS‑1884 for further information on the impact of that law on their case.