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The Immigrant Visa (IV) Control System manages US screening and authorization of foreign nationals for permanent entry. It tracks applications, verifies eligibility, and enforces legal and security requirements. It is a critical part of the administration of the Immigration and Nationality Act (INA). Overall, it manages the numerical limitations on annual US immigrant visa issuance.
At the beginning of each month, the Visa Office (VO) receives a report from each US consular post around the world listing totals of documentarily qualified immigrant visa applicants in categories subject to numerical limitation. The VO groups cases by foreign state chargeability, preference and priority date. Reports do not include names. During the first week of each month, the VO tabulates documentarily qualified immigrant visa demand.
The Visa Office subdivides the annual preference and foreign state limitations specified by the INA into monthly allotments. Each month, the VO compares total qualified applicants with immigrant visa numbers available for the next regular allotment. To decide what numbers are available, the VO must consider several variables. These include past number use and estimated future number use and return rates. They also include estimated USCIS demand based on cut-off date movements. Once the VO considers these, they establish cut-off dates and allocate numbers to reported applicants in order of priority date, oldest first.
If the numbers in a particular category are sufficient to satisfy all reported qualified immigrant visa demand, that category is “Current.” For example: If the monthly allocation target is 3,000, but there are only 1,000 applicants, the category is “Current.”
When total qualified applicants in a category exceed numbers available for a particular month, that category is “oversubscribed.” The VO then establishes a visa availability cut-off date for that category. The Cut-Off Date is the Priority Date of the first documentarily qualified applicant the VO could NOT accommodate for an immigrant visa number. Eg.: If the monthly target is 3,000, and 8,000 applicants exist, VO must establish a Cut-Off date to allocate 3,000 numbers. In such a case, the Cut-Off number is the Priority Date of the 3,001st applicant.
The VO will allot an immigrant visa number only to those with priority dates EARLIER than a cut-off date. Cut-off dates are the 1st, 8th, 15th, and 22nd of a month, since VO groups demand for numbers under these dates. (They group Priority Dates of the 1st through 7th of a month under the 1st; 8th through 14th under the 8th, etc.) On or about the 8th of each month, the VO attempts to establish cut-off dates for the following month. They then immediately transmit cut-off dates to consular posts and USCIS. They also publish cut-off dates in the Visa Bulletin and at the Consular Affairs Web site (www.travel.state.gov). The VO then transmits visa allotments for use during that month. USCIS requests visa allotments for adjustment of status cases only when all other case processing is complete.
Normally, a Priority Date is the filing date of an application for immigrant status.
Allotment is the allocation of an immigrant visa number to a US consular office or to USCIS. An applicant may use this number for immigrant visa issuance or for adjustment of status to lawful permanent resident status (green card status).
Ordinarily, an immigrant is chargeable to the numerical limitation for the foreign state or dependent area of their place of birth. Children (unmarried and under 21) or spouses accompanying or following to join a principal immigrant are exceptions. This is to prevent the separation of family members. Other exceptions may include US-born applicants or those born in a foreign state where neither parent was a native or resident. Alternate chargeability is desirable when the visa cut-off date for the foreign state of a parent or spouse is more advantageous than an applicant’s foreign state.
For example, if someone born in India (which has a large backlog) has an approved employment-based (EB) immigrant petition, but his spouse was born in the United Arab Emirates (UAE, which has no immigrant visa backlog), s/he can take advantage of the spouse’s chargeability to avoid the backlog for those born in India.
Documentarily Qualified means that an applicant has obtained all documents the consular officer specifies as sufficient to meet formal visa application requirements. This applicant must also have completed all of the consular office’s necessary processing procedures.
Applicants entitled to immigrant status become documentarily qualified at their own initiative and convenience. By no means has the VO processed every applicant with a Priority Date earlier than a prevailing Cut-Off date for final visa action. On the contrary, the VO makes visa allotments only on the basis of the total qualified applicants reported each month. Demand for immigrant visa numbers can fluctuate from one month to another, with an inevitable impact on cut-off dates.
If an applicant is documentarily qualified, but immigrant visa number allocation is not possible due to a visa availability Cut-Off date, VO records that demand. It then makes an allocation as soon as the applicable Cut-Off Date advances beyond the applicant’s Priority Date. It is not necessary to report such applicant a second time.
The VO allots visa numbers for all documentarily qualified applicants with a Priority Date before the relevant Cut-Off date. This allocation occurs if the VO received a report of the case in time for inclusion in monthly visa availability calculation. If an overseas processing office fails to receive a visa number, USCIS may not have sent it in time for the monthly allocation. Other reasons for failure to receive it includes an incomplete or inaccurate request (e.g., incorrect Priority Date).
Allocations to Foreign Service posts outside the regular monthly cycle are possible in emergency or exceptional cases. But this is possible only upon request of the office processing the case. Should VO announce Cut-Off Date retrogression, they can honor extraordinary requests for additional numbers only if the applicant’s Priority Date is earlier than the retrogressed Cut-Off Date.
The VO does not use all numbers allocated for immigrant visa issuance. Some return to the pool of available numbers that the VO will allocate later in the fiscal year. Just as demand may fluctuate, the rate of unused numbers may also fluctuate from month to month. Lower returns mean fewer numbers available for subsequent reallocation. Fluctuations can cause Cut-Off Date movement to slow, stop, or even retrogress. Retrogression is particularly possible near the end of a fiscal year as immigrant visa issuance approaches annual limitations.
The annual per-country limitation of 7% on immigrant visa issuance is a cap or ceiling. Visa issuances to any single country may not exceed this limitation. Countries have no entitlement to this quota–it is a limit only. Applicants compete for visas primarily on a worldwide basis. The country limitation is in place to avoid monopolization of annual immigrant visa limitation by a few countries.
A portion of the immigrant numbers in the Family Second preference category (F2) are exempt from this per-country cap. AC21 removed per-country limits in any calendar quarter where overall demand for EB immigrant visa numbers is less than the total available.
The VO deems a country oversubscribed when its immigrant visa demand exceeds available annual numbers. This may require VO to establish Cut-Off Dates before that applicable to a particular visa category on a worldwide basis. Prorating numbers for an oversubscribed country follows the same percentages for division of worldwide annual limitations among preferences. (Visa availability cut-off dates for oversubscribed areas may not be later than worldwide cut-off dates, if any, for respective preferences.)