April 2011 Visa Bulletin: Retregression for USC’s Sons and Daughters

 

For April’s Visa Bulletin, “continued heavy applicant demand for numbers in the Family First (F1) preference category has required the retrogression of the Worldwide, China-mainland born, and India cut-off date for the month of April,” according to the State Department.  Yes, indeed. All three F1 cut-off dates retrogress eight months from Jan. 1, 2005 to May 1, 2004.  The F1 preference category is for unmarried sons and daughters of U.S. citizens, with about 23,000 available visa numbers per year. The good news is that Family Second (F-2A) finally moves forward by four months to April 1, 2007 for Worldwide, China, India, and Philippines.  F2A Mexico advances six months to July 1, 2006.  The F2A visa category (legal residents’ spouses) have suffered major retrogression recently.   However, the State Department commented that further retrogression is possible for other family preference categories in the future based on the current level of visa usage. 

On the employment side, while EB2 China advances two weeks to July 22, 2006, EB2 India remains unchanged at May 8, 2006.  It should be noted that EB2 India has not moved for more than six months now.  For EB3, there are some forward movements across the board:  Worldwide and Philippines move forward by three weeks to July 22, 2005; China nicely advances five weeks to March 1, 2004; India leaps forward by three weeks to April 8, 2002;  Mexico moves forward by four  months to May 8, 2004; but the Philippines only advances 21 days to July 22, 2005.

FAMILY	Other Countries	China	India	Mexico	Philippines
F-1	01MAY04	01MAY04	01MAY04	15FEB93	01APR95
F-2A	01APR07	01APR07	01APR07	01JUL06	01APR07
F-2B	15APR03	15APR03	15APR03	15JUL92	01DEC99
F-3	15MAR01	15MAR01	15MAR01	08NOV92	01JAN92
F-4	01FEB00	01JAN00	01FEB00	01FEB96	08MAR88

1st: Unmarried Sons and Daughters of Citizens (about 23,000 per year).

2A: The 2 "A" preference is for Spouses and Children (under 21 & unmarried) of LPR's.

2B: The 2 "B" Preference is for Unmarried Sons and Daughters (21 or older) of LPR's.

3rd: Married Sons and Daughters of Citizens.(about 23,000 per year)

4th: Brothers and Sisters of Adult Citizens.(about 65,000 per year)

EMPLOYMENT	Other Countries	China	India	Mexico	Philippines
EB-1	C	C	C	C	C
EB-2	C	22JUL06	08MAY06	C	C
EB-3	22JUL05	01MAR04	08APR02	08MAY04	22JUL05
Other Workers	22JUL03	22APR03	08APR02	22JUL03	22JUL03
EB-4	C	C	C	C	C
Religious	C	C	C	C	C
EB-5	C	C	C	C	C

1st: Priority Workers (Extraordinary ability aliens, multinational companies executives/managers, outstanding prof./researchers)

2nd: Members of the Professions Holding Advanced Degrees or Persons of Exceptional Ability.

3rd: Skilled Workers, Professionals, and Other Workers (Unskilled.)

4th: "Special Immigrants" (Religious & others)

5th: Employment Creation (Investors)