RR159

In February DR received 595 out of 1198 F2B’s(49.7%) In March DR received 310 out of 864 F2B’s (35.9%) Certainly the trend is in the right direction!!

#2 is the obvious threat, has happened before, although they tried to blame it on Covid. But #1 is the long term threat, since they are not enforcing the per country limits in place. So either DR today or some other country in future will continue to dominate and take majority of visas and rest of the world can do nothing about it.

Please feel free to chime in below….. Which one is a bigger threat? 1. Majority of the recent advances in priority date will be captured by Dominican Republic and they will resume getting roughly half of the available F2B’s. 2. The annual limit of 26,266 F2B visas will not be fulfilled this year and all the unused F2B’s along with other unused family categories will be handed over to employment categories at the end of the year.

It actually supports the concerns about DR. Page 5 of the same document says: (The per country limit in INA 202 sets an annual maximum on the amount of Family preference visas which may be issued to applicants from any one country; the FY 2024 per country limit will be 15,820.) In the first 5 months of FY 2024, DR already received 13,870. At this rate it’s hard to imagine the limit will not be exceeded by the end of the year.

One way DoS can clear up any doubts and resentment among RoW is to publish a countrywide breakdown of F2B candidates waiting for their PD to become current. That list will clearly show if DR indeed has about half of the candidates in the waiting pool.

On a more serious note, F2B people will be lucky if the priority date moves by one week in the visa bulletin for May 2024. https://travel.state.gov/content/dam/visas/Statistics/Immigrant-Statistics/MonthlyIVIssuances/FEBRUARY%202024%20-%20IV%20Issuances%20by%20FSC%20or%20Place%20of%20Birth%20and%20Visa%20Class.pdf With five months of statistics available in the 2024 cycle, a total of 8,880 F2B visas are issued out of an average expected 10,944 (=26,266x5/12). So not much wiggle room for a large movement. And it will continue to stay that way for the foreseeable future. At least for the rest of the world other than Dominican Republic. DR continues to grab about half of available F2B’s. 8 people sat down to share a large pizza, cut into 8 equal slices. One of them immediately grabs 4 slices and leaves. The other 7 looks at each other, trying to understand what happened. After a while they are forced to eat about half slices each, happy that they at least got half a slice. The person who was supposed to supervise them keeps quiet, avoiding any eye contact with them

In the Jan ‘24 visa bulletin priority date for F2B Mexico moved by an astonishing amount of 539 days!! Was it: 1) A mistake by dept of state? 2) Or was it because the beneficiaries moved on, got married, became parents, settled down, became grandparents… Does it mean that F2B RoW will now start to move by 100’s days at a time?

Pointing out the exact misunderstood numbers would be helpful. There are no mysteries in those numbers, they are openly available from 2023 annual reports: 1) https://travel.state.gov/content/dam/visas/Statistics/AnnualReports/FY2023AnnualReport/FY2023_AR_TableIII.pdf 2) https://travel.state.gov/content/dam/visas/Statistics/AnnualReports/FY2023AnnualReport/FY2023_AR_TableV_Part4.pdf 3) https://travel.state.gov/content/dam/visas/Statistics/AnnualReports/FY2023AnnualReport/FY2023_AR_TableV_Part1.pdf Summary of countries exceeding the limit at various levels: F2B: DR-13.7k, Phil-3k, Mex-2.6k, Viet-2.3k, out of a total 28.7k issued Family (preference): DR-41.4k, Mex-29.7k, Viet-19k, Cuba-16.3k, Ind-14.7k, out of a total 205k issued Family +Emploment (preference): Ind-41.9k, DR-41.8k, Mex-38.4k, CHN-28.4k, Phil-28.4k, out of a total 399k Immediate relatives are NOT considered preference categories so should not be included for limits, which The Immigration Forum article seems to have done. The reason why nobody is doing anything about this uneven distribution is that lawyers are busy making money off of helping to move family visa quotas over to the employment visas. (21k moved last October) DoS is not doing anything new to fix it because it’s too much work! They can easily apply separate cut off dates for ALL countries exceeding the limits (DR for example). At this digital age this should not be an issue.

Well now the adjustment of status numbers are published, so the total numbers are slightly moved around. Following countries are exceeding the limit: F2B: DR-13.7k, Phil-3k, Mex-2.6k, Viet-2.3k Family: DR-41.4k, Mex-29.7k, Viet-19k, Cuba-16.3k, Ind-14.7k Fam+Emp: Ind-41.9k, DR-41.8k, Mex-38.4k, CHN-28.4k, Phil-28.4k Section 202 of INA says that the per country limit is 7% of 399k total visas issued to Fam+Emp preference categories last year. Clearly all 5 countries above are violating that rule…

I doubt it will be clearer. For example , next VB, if F2B moves by: a) 2 weeks, does it mean 10 weeks for the remainder of the year? - no b) 4/5 weeks, does it mean 10 weeks for each of the two quarters? - no c) 10 weeks, does it mean 10 weeks each month onwards? - no That notice is actually confusing by design. Even though those DoS people seem like clueless, they are steering the conversation away from the flaws in the system. For instance, excessive numbers of visas issued to DR, and their inability to limit it by putting a separate cut off date for DR.

See how DoS is protecting their rear end, “Up to….” Even if we accept that F2B will move by ten weeks at the end of this FY2024, which is September 2024, then the PD will move a total of 2 months + 10 weeks = 4.25 months. Simple math shows that to clear the current backlog it will take 24 years.

Amen to your last sentence about most of us receiving interviews.

These numbers does include the FX category that is exempt from country limitations. But the total and grand total figures in the report are not unlimited. They are still bound by the total limits and per country limits set by the Congress.

Maybe something along these lines: ”With regards to the situation whereby Dominican Republic received excessive number of Family visas, it’s not fair to the business community. To rectify this injustice to the employers (including our paying clients, of course), let’s award the extra amount (45k - 27k = ) 18k visas to the employment categories.” 🙂

In 2023, those three countries clearly exceeded the 7% limit (27,588x0.07=1,931). Consider total family visas: 205k issued. Top performers,- 1. DR -45k 2. Mexico -25k 3. Vietnam -19k 4. Cuba -17.5k 5. India -14.8k Needless to say they all exceeded 7%, 14.35k. Finally consider family and employment, total visas: 388k issued. Guess who are at the top? 1. DR -45k 2. Mexico -26k 3. Philippines -26k DR is the only country to go beyond 7%, 27k. No matter how people try to justify, official limits don’t seem to apply for DR. Just amazing! 45k against 27k!!

F2B visas obtained from adjustment of status process are not included yet.

https://travel.state.gov/content/travel/en/legal/visa-law0/visa-statistics/annual-reports/report-of-the-visa-office-2023.html

January statistics are out. https://travel.state.gov/content/dam/visas/Statistics/Immigrant-Statistics/MonthlyIVIssuances/JANUARY 2024 - IV Issuances by FSC or Place of Birth and Visa Class.pdf Does anyone here know where to find monthly visa statistics for various categories under “adjustment of status?”

The 2023 annual report will be an interesting one, it’s going to show which country/countries exceeded congress mandated 7% limit on family + employment visas.

A clear trend is emerging here with regards to family sponsored immigrant visas. DOS/NVC feels that they don’t necessarily have to fulfill the total allocated quota of 226,000 family visas for a given fiscal year. The gap created between allowed numbers vs actual issued numbers, can be transferred to employment categories without any qualms (family visa sponsors and recipients are a not-complaining lot, and NVC appears to not having to answer to anyone for their behavior anyway). Latest example is the monthly statistics data for FY 2024. For the first three months (Oct to Dec), expected total family categories visa was supposed to be 56,500 (226,000/4). Actual number issued: 31,194. Utilization is 55% only.

Listening to Charlie again in his video for February visa bulletin. He mentioned the loop hole, whereby unused family visas fall down to employment categories and he said that unused family visa for China will most likely go to employment visa for China so the priority date for China employment visa will move but family visa will not. Why can’t they move the priority date for family visa instead of quickly moving the unused visas into employment categories?

Sorry, data for Oct/2023 to Nov/2023:)

Yes, for the year 2024 we already have data for Oct/2024 to Nov/2024.

I believe it was mentioned by Charlie Oppenheim in the video, and also shown here: https://travel.state.gov/content/dam/visas/Statistics/Immigrant-Statistics/Web_Annual_Numerical_Limits_FY2024.pdf This is a quote from the FAQ section of USCIS: “When the amount of demand for a particular category (or a country within a category) exceeds the supply of visa numbers available, the category/country is considered “oversubscribed” and DOS applies a cut-off date in the Final Action Dates chart to ensure that visa use remains within the annual limits, as well as the category and per-country limits and order of consideration, as established by Congress.“ Given the excessive issuance of Family based visas for Dominican Republic (5,184 within first two months of FY 2024), shouldn’t DOS apply a cut-off date for DR? If they don’t, every time visa bulletin progresses, DR will continue to capture 20 - 25% of family visas (roughly 10 - 12% of family + employment total), instead of the 7% limit established by Congress.

Thanks for the perfect link, it starts at the right point in time. “…focus on EB visas because that's where the money is (nothing wrong).” Yeah, money talks! 55k family visas in 2020 were not issued, instead they were donated to employment category in 2021. 135k family visas in 2021 were not issued, instead they were donated to employment categories in 2022. 57k family visas in 2022 were not issued, instead they were donated to employment categories in 2023. Finally, 21k family visas in 2023 were not issued, instead they were donated to employment categories in 2024. No immigration lawyers made any serious noise about returning these visas back to family categories.