All F2B Updates in This Thread (Part 2)

[Swimming_Upstream 13]

13 hours ago, zaback21 said:

No. Some countries are having certain visas in higher numbers. 

 

In Bangladesh 95% of the visas are going to F4. The rest F1, F2A, F2B and F3 does not even get 1% some month. They can clear 3 years of F2B backlog in a month, but they aren't.

 

The issue is embassies following Documentary Qualified date over Priority Date or issuing visas based on quotas. Since the quotas are not getting filled, embassies are free to use unused numbers the way they like. 

 

Per country quota of 7% of 226k = 15.82k. As long as that quota is not getting filled, they can do whatever they like. 

Second after that quota is filled, I am not sure if they can use the unused visas from overall quotas (226,000 worldwide), so that gives even more visas to use. 

That's frightening at a whole new level. In your case if an F2B beneficiary is already in the US with a student or work visa, and waiting for their PD to become current, there is no guarantee when it will happen. It all depends on the embassy employees back home, and if and when they will feel like processing categories other than F4. 
 

Of course the opposite is happening in Dominican Republic, where F2B visas vastly outnumber all other family visa types. So basically it's a mob rule, whoever can get whatever.

To all people who are saying that things will start to move faster from the next fiscal year, i.e. Oct 2023, my comment is that: Stop spreading false hope! Just look at how the PD's are moving and you will see that nothing is moving actually!

[Mundo254 49]

On 4/2/2023 at 8:46 PM, Swimming_Upstream said:

That's giving false hope, in my opinion. I would refer to the recent trend of awarding F2B visas to candidates based on their foreign state of chargeability, or place of birth: 
https://travel.state.gov/content/dam/visas/Statistics/Immigrant-Statistics/MonthlyIVIssuances/FEBRUARY 2023 - IV Issuances by FSC or Place of Birth and Visa Class.pdf
 

If we pick out only the F2B categories out of this report, that shows how many visas were issued in February of 2023, we can see that 1337 went to Dominican Republic, out of a total of 2257 F2B visas. Philipines, Vietnam, Cuba are also receiving visas at a higher rate. If lack of manpower, and other administrative reasons (e.g. Covid related) are behind this delay, then how is it that some countries are getting huge numbers and some others are not?

If we add these monthly reports for FY 2023 (Oct'22 to Feb'23) more than 50% of the F2B visas went to one particular country (5440 out of 10823). Does it not raise a red flag?
 

 

Good you pointed this out. This is concerning and confusing because my thought was there were limits to how much a country can receive certain visas in a fiscal year. Issuing over 50% of F2B visas to one country is outrageous and honestly, ridiculous to some of us who've been waiting for years in other countries. I doubt if its still an issue with embassy workload and staffing, it seems deliberate that they are just not processing certain Family Visas in some embassies. Looked up my country Kenya Visa Issuance Numbers and The Employment Based Numbers are usually high and Family Visas are disturbingly low. I just can't understand how this system works anymore.

[Mundo254 49]

23 hours ago, zaback21 said:

No. Some countries are having certain visas in higher numbers. 

 

In Bangladesh 95% of the visas are going to F4. The rest F1, F2A, F2B and F3 does not even get 1% some month. They can clear 3 years of F2B backlog in a month, but they aren't.

 

The issue is embassies following Documentary Qualified date over Priority Date or issuing visas based on quotas. Since the quotas are not getting filled, embassies are free to use unused numbers the way they like. 

 

Per country quota of 7% of 226k = 15.82k. As long as that quota is not getting filled, they can do whatever they like. 

Second after that quota is filled, I am not sure if they can use the unused visas from overall quotas (226,000 worldwide), so that gives even more visas to use. 

This is not entirely accurate.

 

A visa can never be issued until your PD becomes current irrespective of your DQ date. They look at PD first then from there they filter it out to earliest to latest DQ.

[zaback21 29]

11 hours ago, Mundo254 said:

This is not entirely accurate.

 

A visa can never be issued until your PD becomes current irrespective of your DQ date. They look at PD first then from there they filter it out to earliest to latest DQ.

There are over 3 years worth of Documentarily Qualified people with Priority Date current who are waiting in Bangladesh embassy. 

 

In May 2023, March 2020 Documentarily Qualified people with PD current is getting interviews. That's 3 years 2 months delay before they can even clear out the backlog. 

 

Then we can worry about who is eligible with PD current or not. 

Edited April 4, 2023 by zaback21

[zaback21 29]

11 hours ago, Mundo254 said:

Good you pointed this out. This is concerning and confusing because my thought was there were limits to how much a country can receive certain visas in a fiscal year. Issuing over 50% of F2B visas to one country is outrageous and honestly, ridiculous to some of us who've been waiting for years in other countries. I doubt if its still an issue with embassy workload and staffing, it seems deliberate that they are just not processing certain Family Visas in some embassies. Looked up my country Kenya Visa Issuance Numbers and The Employment Based Numbers are usually high and Family Visas are disturbingly low. I just can't understand how this system works anymore.

It's actually not outrageous at all. In this current scenarios we should all hope that more and more visas get issued since they are not processing anywhere close to the 226,000 visas per year. So, lots of visas are getting unused. 

 

I don't care who is issuing what, just issue as much as you can so we don't have unused visas like the last 2-3 years. 

[zaback21 29]

21 hours ago, Swimming_Upstream said:

That's frightening at a whole new level. In your case if an F2B beneficiary is already in the US with a student or work visa, and waiting for their PD to become current, there is no guarantee when it will happen. It all depends on the embassy employees back home, and if and when they will feel like processing categories other than F4. 
 

Of course the opposite is happening in Dominican Republic, where F2B visas vastly outnumber all other family visa types. So basically it's a mob rule, whoever can get whatever.

To all people who are saying that things will start to move faster from the next fiscal year, i.e. Oct 2023, my comment is that: Stop spreading false hope! Just look at how the PD's are moving and you will see that nothing is moving actually!

There's a 3 years 2 months wait for people who have documentarily qualified in Bangladesh.

 

In May 2023, March 2020 DQ people are getting interviews. 

I think it's 1.5-2 years in India. Same in lots of other countries. 

 

Unless it moves back to within a year for some embassies, I don't see PD moving now much. 

[Swimming_Upstream 13]

22 hours ago, zaback21 said:

There's a 3 years 2 months wait for people who have documentarily qualified in Bangladesh.

 

In May 2023, March 2020 DQ people are getting interviews. 

I think it's 1.5-2 years in India. Same in lots of other countries. 

 

Unless it moves back to within a year for some embassies, I don't see PD moving now much. 

Sincerely appreciate your behind-the-scenes insight into actual delay situations in terms of years and months. Since this is a forum for F2B category, is it possible to find out the Priority dates for those 10 people who got their visas under F2B category during the month of February 2023, from the US embassy in Bangladesh?

[zaback21 29]

2 hours ago, Swimming_Upstream said:

Sincerely appreciate your behind-the-scenes insight into actual delay situations in terms of years and months. Since this is a forum for F2B category, is it possible to find out the Priority dates for those 10 people who got their visas under F2B category during the month of February 2023, from the US embassy in Bangladesh?

Priority Date is all over the place but in the year 2014 for most of them. There have been cases of someone waiting since 2013. But embassies only schedule visas as per documentarily qualified date. 

 

So, someone may file petition later but get approved earlier from like Nebraska compared to someone waiting 5-6 years for petition to get approved from California. This scheduling interview based on DQ date is actually making it worse for some categories in some embassies. 

 

There are so few F2Bs (F1, F2A and F3 too) in Bangladesh that they can clear out 3 years of backlog in a month or just one Super Friday interview. But they don't care whose priority date is when or which categories is getting visas or what, they just follow DQ date as long as your PD is current. This is how in most countries I believe too. 

Edited April 5, 2023 by zaback21

[Newbuddy 1]

Seems like lots of backlog and tons of workload in embassies. Heavy workloads demands more manpower, is there any recruitment going on ? Please inform us,

ready to work till pd becomes current..

Edited April 6, 2023 by Newbuddy

[Ikandro00 2]

Hello I have this situation still waiting interview 😕

 

Im in usa have tourist visa can I fill Adjustment of Status and move my case in usa?

 

May 12, 2020 Case Was Approved

March 29, 2016 We received your Form I-130, Petition for Alien Relative.

[zaback21 29]

5 hours ago, Ikandro00 said:

Hello I have this situation still waiting interview 😕

 

Im in usa have tourist visa can I fill Adjustment of Status and move my case in usa?

 

May 12, 2020 Case Was Approved

March 29, 2016 We received your Form I-130, Petition for Alien Relative.

I think you are eligible since your filing date is current. Have you received welcome letter and have been documentarily qualified? 

 

In any case, try post or search in the adjustment of status section for more info.

[Ikandro00 2]

On 4/7/2023 at 2:04 AM, zaback21 said:

I think you are eligible since your filing date is current. Have you received welcome letter and have been documentarily qualified? 

 

In any case, try post or search in the adjustment of status section for more info.

 

Hello thank for answer, yes documents are qualified. only waiting interview... almost 2 years document are qualified :/

[bobo123 3]

Hello, 

I have been documentarily qualified since Jan 19th, 2023. The visa class is F24, 
I see a lot of people over here getting their interview letters in 2 to 3 month mark, but I haven’t gotten any update yet.
I emailed the Montreal Embassy aswell, but didn’t get any reply. Since it’s been more than three months, I’m getting slightly worried now.  

I’m not even sure if the priority date matters after being documentarily qualified but I checked on the bulletin, it says that the priority date currently is 22nd September 15 and my priority date is 26th, March 15 . 

Does that mean my priority date has already passed?  Can anyone guide me regarding this and also if someone is in a similar boat I would love to hear your experience.

Thankyou

[RR159 12]

Assuming annual cap of 26,200, monthly average application expected to be processed = 2,183. Reality is far from average, dear F2B hopefuls!

 

Checking through immigration visa issue records from October 2019 to March 2023, it looks like there is a backlog of about 42,000 visas for F2B category due to COVID. Is USCIS taking any steps to recover these visas?
Does any one know what is the rate of new applications per month for this category? If the rate of new applications is higher than before as well, then I guess USCIS will never be able to catch up. 
Any information, insights..., appreciated

[Boiler 45,445]

The number of new applications generally for all categories is increasing, as you would expect. I am sure it is not a constant which is why you see them effectively having to guess and adjust the dates accordingly.

 

If I was to guess I would assume the priority dates move forward at about 8 months for every year. So can they catch up, well COVID type issues excepted probably not.