The November 2021 Visa Bulletin was released late last week. The only major point of emphasis in this month’s visa bulletin is that EB3 India and EB3 China have seen significant retrogression, likely a result of the large quantity to EB2 to EB3 “downgrade” filings over the past year or so. Correspondingly, the EB2 categories for both of those countries have seen some fairly significant forward movement, and their priority dates are now much closer or ahead of the EB3. The remaining categories, both family and employment-based, saw little to no change. Once again, USCIS has indicated that the Dates for Filing chart is to be used by all applicants filing for their greencards in both the employment-based and family-based categories, except for F2A which is to use the Final Action Dates chart.
Commentary:
November 2021
For all countries except India, China, Philippines, and Mexico: F2A category priority date remains current, F2B preference remains at a PD of 22 September 2015, F4 category remains at 22 March 2007; EB1 remains current; EB2 remains current; and EB3 remains current.
For India only: F2A category remains current, F2B preference remains at 22 September 2015, F4 remains at a PD of 15 September 2005; EB1 remains current; EB2 advances 91 days to 1 December 2011; EB3 retrogresses 717 days (1 year, 11 months, 17 days) to a PD of 15 January 2012; EB5 Non-Regional Center remains current and the Regional Center remains unavailable.
For China only: EB1 remains current; EB2 advances 137 days to a PD of 15 November 2018; EB3 retrogresses 292 days to a PD of 22 March 2018; EB5 Non-Regional Center remains at a PD of 22 November 2015 and the Regional Center remains unavailable.
For Vietnam only: EB5 Non-Regional Center remains current and the Regional Center remains unavailable.
Can file your immigrant applications if PD before:
F2A Current; F2B 22 September 2016 for All Areas, except 1 October 2000 for Mexico and 1 October 2013 for Philippines; F4 1 October 2007 for All Areas, except 1 January 2006 for India, 1 June 1999 for Mexico, and 1 February 2004 for Philippines.
EB1 Current for all countries, including China and India; EB2 All countries except India and China are current; EB3 Current for all countries except India and China; EB2 India 8 January 2013; EB3 India 22 January 2012; EB2 China 1 February 2019; EB3 China 1 April 2018; EB5 China (RC and Non-RC) 15 December 2015; Vietnam is not individually listed and should use the all countries category.
Notes copied from the Department of State regarding Visa availability:
D. EXPIRATION OF THE EMPLOYMENT-BASED FIFTH PREFERENCE I5 AND R5 REGIONAL CENTER VISA CATEGORIES
Division O, Title 1, Section 104 of the Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2021 extended the immigrant investor pilot program until June 30, 2021. No I5 or R5 visas may be issued overseas, or final action taken on adjustment of status cases after June 30, 2021.
The final action dates for the I5 and R5 categories have been listed as “Unavailable” for November.
If there is legislative action extending this category for November, the final action dates would immediately become “Current” for November for all countries except China-mainland born I5 and R5, which would be subject to a November 22, 2015 final action date.
E. CHINA-MAINLAND BORN AND INDIA EMPLOYMENT THIRD PREFERENCE FINAL ACTION DATES RETROGRESS FOR NOVMBER
It has been necessary to retrogress both the China-mainland born and India Employment Third preference final action dates. This is a direct result of extraordinarily heavy applicant demand for numbers, primarily by Citizenship and Immigration Services offices for adjustment of status cases.
F. EXPLANATION OF THE NUMERICAL CONTROL SYSTEM, ANNUAL AND PER-COUNTRY LIMITS
WHAT CAUSES THE ESTABLISHMENT OF FINAL ACTION DATES?
The Visa Office (VO) subdivides the annual preference and foreign state limitations specified in the Immigration and Nationality Act (INA) into twelve monthly allotments. The totals of documentarily complete applicants that have been reported to VO are compared each month with the numbers available for the next regular allotment and numbers are allocated to reported applicants in order of their priority dates (the oldest dates first).
– If there are enough visa numbers available in a particular category to satisfy all reported documentarily complete demand, the category is considered “Current.” For example, if the Employment First preference monthly target is 5,000 and there are only 3,000 applicants, the category is considered “Current.”
– Whenever the total number of documentarily complete applicants in a category exceeds the supply of numbers available for allotment for the upcoming month, the category is considered “oversubscribed”, and a visa availability final action date is established. The final action date is the priority date of the first documentarily complete applicant who could not be accommodated for the use of a visa number. For example, if the Employment First preference monthly target is 5,000 and there are 8,000 applicants, a final action date would be established so that only 5,000 numbers would be used, and the final action date would be the priority date of the 5,001st applicant.
Applicants entitled to immigrant status become documentarily complete at their own initiative and convenience and upon the completion of various processing requirements. Therefore, it is extremely important to remember that by no means has every applicant with a priority date earlier than a prevailing final action date been processed for final visa action. On the contrary, visa allotments are made only based on the total applicants reported documentarily complete each month and in consideration of other variables. Demand for visa numbers can fluctuate from one month to another with an inevitable impact on final action dates, an important fact to remember as processing continues to return to normal pre-COVID levels.
Annual Family-sponsored and Employment-based limit: Section 201 of the INA sets an annual minimum Family-sponsored preference limit of 226,000, while the worldwide annual level for Employment-based preference immigrants is at least 140,000. Unused numbers from the previous year’s annual limits are considered in the calculation of these annual limits.
Per-country limit: The annual per-country limitation of 7% is a cap, which visa issuances to any single country may not exceed. Applicants compete for visas primarily on a worldwide basis. The per-country limitation serves to avoid monopolization of virtually all the annual limitation by applicants from only a few countries. This limitation is not a quota to which any particular country is entitled, however.
Applicability of Section 202(a)(5): INA Section 202(a)(5), added by the American Competitiveness Act in the 21st Century, removed the per-country limit on Employment-based immigrants in any calendar quarter in which applicant demand for numbers in one or more Employment-based preferences is less than the total of such numbers available. In recent years, the application of Section 202(a)(5) has allowed countries such as China – mainland born and India to utilize large amounts of Employment-based preference numbers, which otherwise would have gone unused. Such numbers are provided strictly in priority date order without regard to the foreign state chargeability, and the same final action date applies to any country benefiting from this provision.
Applicability of Section 202(e): When visa demand by documentarily complete applicants from a particular country exceeds the amount of numbers available under the annual numerical limitation, that country is considered to be oversubscribed. Oversubscription may require the establishment of an earlier final action date than that which applies to a particular visa category on a worldwide basis. The prorating of numbers for an oversubscribed country follows the same percentages specified for the division of the worldwide annual limitation among the preferences. (Note that visa availability final action dates for oversubscribed areas may not be later than worldwide final action dates, if any, for the respective preferences.)
G. @TRAVELGOV HOSTING MONTHLY YOUTUBE LIVE “CHATS WITH CHARLIE”
@TravelGov will be hosting “Chats with Charlie” on our YouTube channel https://www.youtube.com/user/TravelGov) to discuss information provided in the monthly Visa Bulletin with our expert Charlie Oppenheim. This month’s chat is scheduled to take place on October 26, 2021 at 1:00 p.m. EST to discuss the November Visa Bulletin. Questions can be emailed to [email protected] ahead of the event with “Chat with Charlie Question” in the subject line. Questions will also be taken via the YouTube Live Chat and will be answered in real-time. The event is intended to address issues of general interest related to the content of the Visa Bulletin, and no policy, case or post specific questions will be accepted. This will be Charlie’s last chat before his retirement, but @TravelGov will continue to host chats on consular related issues.
H. FOR THE LATEST INFORMATION ON VISA PROCESSING AT U.S. EMBASSIES AND CONSULATES DURING THE COVID-19 PANDEMIC, PLEASE VISIT THE BUREAU OF CONSULAR AFFAIRS WEBSITE AT TRAVEL.STATE.GOV
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