The United States Department of State, through the Bureau of Consular Affairs, publishes the monthly "Visa Bulletin." The Visa Bulletin lists the availability of "immigrant numbers" during the month of publication, and is intended as a guide for consular officials, attorneys and others who would like to know if visas are immediately available for individuals in particular categories.
The Visa Bulletin indicates the availability of visas for family and employment-based preference categories, and separately lists countries that may have exceeded their allocation of visas. Countries that have exceeded their allocation of visas are “oversubscribed” and individuals from those countries must wait before a visa can be issued.
What is a priority date?
As part of the immigration paperwork process, individual applicants receive priority dates. These dates indicate the applicant's place in line, which determines when they are eligible to enter the United States. In most circumstances, the priority date is the filing date of the petition or labor certification application.
Individuals whose priority date is after the one listed in the tables must wait until their priority date is included in a table published in the monthly Visa Bulletin. In other words - only applicants who have a priority date earlierthan the cut-off date may be allotted a number.
Contrary to what one might believe, priority dates do not necessarily advance one month at a time, and depend upon the number of applications filed around the time of an individual’s application.
What does it mean if a category is “current”?
If a Category is "Current" then visas are immediately available for issuance by the consulate, and tables on the Visa Bulletin indicate this fact with a "C" under the appropriate chargeability area. If a category is oversubscribed, tables on the Visa Bulletin indicate this fact with a date, such as 22JUN00 under the appropriate chargeability area. When a category is oversubscribed, as mentioned above, only individuals with a “priority date” earlier than the one listed on the Visa Bulletin may be issued visas.
At Immigration Compliance Group, we continue to share information on Visa Bulletin matters with our readers and explain them in easily understandable language.
If you have any questions on this topic, please feel free to contact us. We have a Quick Link to the Visa Bulletin in our monthly newsletter each month.
