RR159

November visa statistics are not coming out yet. Any explanations?…. Maybe extra scrutiny going on?… https://travel.state.gov/content/travel/en/legal/visa-law0/visa-statistics/immigrant-visa-statistics/monthly-immigrant-visa-issuances.html

Happy new year 2025 to all F2B’ers!

You may want to try writing to your state senator, house representative, or even the Secretary of State and explain all the delays. Lawyers don’t want to sue USCIS or DoS for family based categories.

There is no harm in wishful thinking….

Rationalizing as in “Stop taking new applications until all existing applications are processed and visa issued”?

Thanks for pouring cold water! In FY 2020, priority dates moved by 13 months 7 days.

https://travel.state.gov/content/dam/visas/Statistics/Immigrant-Statistics/MonthlyIVIssuances/SEPTEMBER 2024 - IV Issuances by FSC or Place of Birth and Visa Class.pdf Fiscal year 2024 ended with total F2B issued:- 26.3k which is right on target. What is NOT on target is the movement of Priority dates. 7 months 10 days in a one year period? So let’s say if my PD is 3 years away I actually have to wait 3x (12/7.33)= 5 years? I hope Mr. Openheim will be able to help out here…

Finger pointing has already started, in case State Department fails to reach 226k visas for family categories!! But realistically, I think they are taking about adjustment of status data not being provided by USCIS, for different categories.

Exactly

Charlie talking sweet little nothings

It shows how immigration lawyers treat their clients as ignorant followers of instructions. New fiscal year has already started with a bang ‼️ complete and absolute zero movement.

Last year F2A moved in September. Do you think NVC will be able to reach the target of total number for each family category this year?

Is it because we’re so used to seeing no movement that any movement will be unusual? For the record not a single family category moved.

Following up: did the visa office really listen to the advice above regarding F2B? They needed to issue 2,800 F2B visas monthly. May: 1,554, June: 2,824. Catching up but slowly. July - September they have to issue 3,300 F2B’s per month. To do that PD need to move quickly. The other interesting part is, of course, Dominican Republic. May to June F2B increased by 1,270. May to June F2B for DR increased by 1,212 (349 jump to 1,561 for DR). Fair to say all the increased visas went to one country.

F2B moved up by 30 days last month: while it was a good news, DoS need to do better than that going forward. They are behind by 3,000 F2B visas to meet this year’s quota.

Good for you! Back in June, 2017, if you could show your work skills in your application, and if your skills allowed your application to be placed in a some sort of expedited category, would it have been better for you? Skilled people have higher chances of getting a job in the USA, and if they are being sponsored by their parents so they don’t have to depend on their employers, isn’t that a good idea…

There’s a general feeling that people coming to the US on family reunification visas (e.g. F2B) are those lucky vagabonds, with no educational qualifications or practical skills/useful work experience. Basically bottom feeders. Because there’s no such requirements for those visas. But are they all useless people?

Yes majority of EB3 visas are going to Philippines. But majority of F1, FX, F2B are going to DR. Let’s check the total of Family + Employment: This year it’s 14.2k for Philippines, 20k for DR. Last year it was 28.4k for Philippines, 41.7k for DR

Feeling sorry that F2B didn’t move at all for Philippines in July VB. I believe your countries US embassy is strictly following the 7% per country limit. That’s why we’re seeing couple hundred F2B visas per month for Philippines for the last few months. Compare that with 800 (on average) F2B visas per month for DR. Clearly something is wrong here. 😑

April visa issuance numbers came out yesterday: https://travel.state.gov/content/dam/visas/Statistics/Immigrant-Statistics/MonthlyIVIssuances/APRIL 2024 - IV Issuances by FSC or Place of Birth and Visa Class.pdf In the first 7 months of FY 2024, total family category visas issued so far = 85,250. Including AoS, it will be ~ 90k. Ideally, by April, number of total family visa issued should have been = 226,000 x 7/12 = 131,833. So the visa issue process by NVC is behind by about 42k. F2B visa issue process is behind by at least 3k. To catch up and ensure full allotment by the year-end, about 2,800 F2B’s must be issued every month until September. That will require the PD to move quickly in the upcoming visa bulletins, right @Mr. Charlie Oppenheim?

Congratulations! Thanks for sharing.

It’s hard to say for sure. Visas are being issued to Philippines but the 10/22/2012 date is not moving at all. Still backlog? But much MORE visas are being issued to DR and their date is moving too. Doesn’t make sense. NVC has a strong bias for DR over others. At least F3 and F4 are moving now so hopefully F2B will follow suit soon.

Thanks for the link. ”Only persons with a priority date earlier than a final action date are entitled to allotment of a visa number.” So whenever a priority date moves in VB, VO should have a clear idea of how many new visa numbers are allotted, right? Then how come they have to stop the PD the very next month, as if they may have moved the PD too much forward the previous month? Also, the last two paragraphs talk about per country limit and section 202(e). “Over subscription may require the establishment of a final action date which is earlier than that which applies to a particular visa category on a worldwide basis.” - How come this never happens?

Is there any global database as to which countries consulate is at what stage regarding backlog? The countries that are slow in scheduling interviews will always show an outstanding number of PD current applications that are not issued/processed yet (up to two years worth). So NVC may not move the date forward, thinking “we have so many current applicants that didn’t get processed yet”.

But, but, I thought Charlie said….. NVC systems and processes are so old, like pieces of antique items, they can’t calculate how many new F2B applicants became eligible for interview in the last few months (PD moved by 131 days). So every time PD moves, they have to wait, take rest for at least one month to find out what to do.