Swimming_Upstream

And the system is not working for many of the applicants who can be valuable contributors to the economy. If you compare the priorities given to first group of applicants (1-5) vs to those of group A-B, it's clear.

Yes, while they just have to wait for five years, applicants from F1, F2B have to wait for 8+ years, and E2, E3 applicants from India have to wait for 12+ years just to get their priority dates current. The time line mentioned for IR1 - Spouse, is for applicants already living in the US. F2A is defined in the Visa Bulletin as Spouse and Children of Permanent residents.

Thanks for your feedback! IR5 - Parents: On average 10 thousand parents are getting their Green cards per month for the last few months. How many can afford to pay for private insurance? Medicare in many states are being used by them, in addition to emergency services. IR1 - Spouses: Multiple immigration attorneys claim that the Spouse green card process takes 9 to 12 mths. So it is a shortcut, compared to 8 - 20 years for some other categories. And well, they don't have to sign a contract, and that's the point. Typically people become so frustrated from either (1) not getting sponsorship from their employers, or (2) waiting for too long in one of the other categories, that they are left with no other choice but to go for IR1/CR1. FX - Exempt spouses for LPR's: They can apply jointly with their main applicant spouses, or they can apply under F2A. Can someone really explain the reason behind keeping two categories (F2A and FX) for Spouses of LPR's?

The following categories are most subscribed to, or gets the most number of Green cards on a regular basis: 1. IR5 - Parents of US citizens 2. DV - Diversity Visa 3. IR1 - Spouse of US citizens 4. FX - Spouse of lawful permanent residents (exempt from country quota limitations) 5. F4 - Siblings of US citizens Let's see if and how these groups of people contribute to the US economy. There are some hard truths that need to be discussed. Twenty first century demands that to be successful, the workforce be technically knowledgeable and skilled. Start with the easy one, DV. The basic premise is to make America more diverse, or representative of all countries/cultures, but does that automatically mean that it will help the economy? IR5, Parents and F4, Siblings. Bringing parents may give some peace of mind to new citizens, but are they not a burden to the healthcare system? Are all Siblings technically qualified or are skilled enough for the US job market? It doesn't make sense to allow residency for just being a parent or sibling of a citizen without any qualifications. IR1, Spouse of US citizens. This is one of the most abused visa categories. People who have no other way of getting residency, or who can not afford to wait in the very long wait lists in other categories, typically attempt for this shortcut, and find a suitable citizen partner. Once green card in hand, they are not required to stay committed to the marriage. And finally FX. Regular applicants of green cards typically include their Spouses and children under various employment and other categories, including F2A. But this FX is a special category for the spouses who are considered "Exempt". Why should some spouses be exempt from numerical limitations when vast majorities are not? So which groups should ideally get the priorities? A. IR2 - Children of US citizens B. F2B - 21+ children of LPR C. F1 - 21+ children of US citizens D. E2, E3 - Employment based Children should stay with their parents, so they should have the permanent resident status. Even if they are above 21 years of age, parents sponsorship helps them to gain education and subsequently employment. Other sources of sponsorship are increasingly hard to get these days. Please feel free to provide feedback on the topics discussed above.

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?

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!

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?

Can you please explain : "...April 2023 when documentarily qualified will be stopped". Do you mean the process of Documentarily qualifying will be stopped from April 2023? If so, why?

So it doesn't matter whether the applicant is already in the States or not? They still have to go by "Foreign State of Chargeability"? And does foreign state of chargeability always go by place of birth, or can it be citizenship?

Thanks for sharing!

Well, thanks for confirming that. I saw the list of countries that has this cap applied in the Visa Bulletin. That list includes El Salvador as well. One of the points I initially mentioned was that DOS is not following the cap for some of the countries. In Fiscal Year 2022 El Salvador received 2,042 F2B visas, about 7.8% of the total alloted number. Since El Salvador is in that list of oversubscribed countries, that proves my point.

Hi GusHD, Any reference to that expectation of final action dates moving forward?

Does Mexico and Phillipines have cap on F2B category?

Hello! Does anyone know if country limitations apply to F2B category (Unmarried Sons and Daughters (21 years of age or older)? For example, page 3 of this link below says that there is generally a 7% cap on family based visas for any specific country, except portion of F2A. https://travel.state.gov/content/dam/visas/Statistics/Immigrant-Statistics/Immigrant%20Visa%20Control%20System_operation%20of.pdf If this is true than F2B should have the 7% cap. But recent trend of F2B visa issuance shows a gross violation of this requirement, below. In fiscal year 2022, Dominical Republic received 3,816 and El Salvador received 2,042, out of a total of 16,281. Both numbers are higher than the 7% of total allowable visa for F2B category: 1,839 (=7% x 23% x 114,200 = 1,839). Please see page 6 of the document in the link below: https://travel.state.gov/content/dam/visas/Statistics/AnnualReports/FY2022AnnualReport/FY22_TableV_Part1.pdf Any comments from this group will be appreciated! Thanks.