May 2010: Family Petitions Advance; Employment Visas Still Tight

The State Department publishes the Visa Bulletin every month to advise the public the availability of immigrant visa numbers in each preference category.  The first table is for family-based immigration and the second for employment-based.  If the priority date printed on the receipt of your petition is before the cut-off date in your category, then you’re eligible for an immigrant visa.  “C” means there are visas for all applicants, and “U” means visas are unavailable.
For May, the declining demand for family visas for the past fifteen months has resulted in some nice advancements in the family preference categories.  For example, the First preference for the Philippines has advanced six months and most other countries also have a 2-month advance. The State Department warns that if demand for visas start to increase, cutoff-date movements may begin to slow or stop.   For Dominican Republic, heavy visa demands could result in cut-off dates for the Family second preference categories in June.  On the employment side,  demand for Employment Fourth preference numbers remains very heavy, which could result in a cut-off date as early as June.  The annual limits for the Mexico Employment Third and Third preference Other Worker categories have been reached. Therefore, both categories have become “unavailable" in the bulletin.  The State Department explained that this is a result of the heavy visa demand primarily by USCIS offices for adjustment of status cases (green card).  Hopefully, visa numbers will become available once again in October when the new fiscal year begins
Family	All Charge- ability Areas Except Those Listed	CHINA-mainland born	INDIA	MEXICO	PHILIPPINES
1st	2004/9/8	2004/9/8	2004/9/8	10/15/1992	11/1/1994
2A	2006/12/1	2006/12/1	2006/12/1	6/1/2005	12/1/2006
2B	2002/7/1	2002/7/1	2002/7/1	6/15/1992	11/15/1998
3rd	2001/6/8	2001/6/8	2001/6/8	10/22/1992	5/1/1992
4th	2000/5/15	2000/5/15	2000/5/15	12/8/1995	12/8/1987
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-mainland born	INDIA	MEXICO	PHILIPPINES
1st	C	C	C	C	C
2nd	C	2005/9/22	2005/2/1	C	C
3rd	2003/4/22	2003/4/22	2001/10/1	U	2003/4/22
Other Workers	2001/6/1	2001/6/1	2001/6/1	U	2001/6/1
4th	C	C	C	C	C
Religious Workers	C	C	C	C	C
5th	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)