How exactly to Browse the Visa Bulletin

What’s the Visa Bulletin

If you or your loved ones member is really a green card holder and you’re planning on obtaining a family-based. green card, you’ve most likely found out about the visa bulletin.

The visa bulletin is issued every by the Department of State month. It shows which green card applications can move forward, centered on when the I-130 petition that starts the card that is green ended up being initially filed. Additionally allows you to estimate the length of time it will take before you should be able to get the card that is green how quickly the “line” is moving now. As s n as your I-130 petition is filed, you’ll find a way to check on the visa bulletin and watch your home in line move forward.

Boundless Co-Founder and immigration policy expert, Doug Rand, posts a monthly analysis of the very Visa Bulletin that is recent right here.

All you need to find out about this crucial update that is monthly explained below, but right here’s the bottom line for members of the family searching for green cards

• You don’t even need to read the visa bulletin—there’s no green card backlog or wait time for you if you’re the spouse, parent, or unmarried child (under age 21) of a U.S. citizen!
• If you’re the spouse or unmarried kid (under age 21) of the U.S. green card owner, you’ll have to attend additional 12-18 months for the green card to be available.
• If you’re in a category that is different your green card wait time Farmers dating sites free can vary greatly — from years to years.
• Boundless posts the most recent wait times here.

To get more information about family-based immigration, see our guide on Marriage-Based Green Cards.

Boundless + RapidVisa can help you to get your application done faster.

Green card backlogs plus the Visa Bulletin

The visa bulletin exists because Congress caps how many green cards that may be issued each year. How many people that are l king for green cards has regularly surpassed this limit that is annual producing a backlog—in reality, several backlogs.

You can find presently 366,000 green cards available annually, but that total is broken down into a category that is complex, with a certain quota for each category. The 2 broadest categories are family-based green cards (226,000), which include marriage-based green cards, and employment-based green cards (140,000).

Along with setting a overall restriction on the amount of green cards which can be granted each year, Congress additionally limits the amount of available green cards centered on country of beginning. Under this yearly “country cap,” no single nation of origin can account fully for a lot more than 7% for the green cards in any particular category.

That’s no deal that is big a country like, say, Belgium (population 11 million)—in fact, no European or African countries create sufficient green card need to enhance against the country limit. But you will find substantial backlogs facing the many card that is green from Asia (population 1.4 billion), Asia (population 1.3 billion), Mexico (populace 129 million), plus the Philippines (population 105 million).

How exactly to read the Visa Bulletin

The caps on family-based green cards are separated into four“preference categories” that is primary.

F1 (first preference) Unmarried grownups (age 21 and over) who’re kids of U.S. residents. The cap with this category is 23,400 green cards per 12 months.

F2 (second choice) partners and unmarried young ones of green card holders. The cap that is overall this category is 114,200 green cards each year, but it’s split up into two sub-categories

• F2A Spouses and unmarried children that are minorunder age 21) of green card holders. If you are a green card owner who’s applied for a green card for the partner, this is actually the category you’ll need certainly to view when you check out the visa bulletin. 77% regarding the category that is second goes towards this F2A sub-category (that’s 87,934 green cards each year).
• F2B Unmarried adult kids (age 21 and over) of green card holders. 23% for the second category quota goes towards this F2B sub-category (that’s 26,266 green cards each year).

F3 (third choice) Married children of U.S. residents, regardless of age. The cap with this category is 23,400 green cards per 12 months.

F4 (fourth choice) Brothers and sisters of U.S. citizens. The cap with this category is 65,000 cards that are green year.