NEO2023

This is strange. What are your thoughts on the September visa bulletin section G: (https://travel.state.gov/content/travel/en/legal/visa-law0/visa-bulletin/2024/visa-bulletin-for-september-2024.html)

At the end of the fiscal year 2024, NVC complains that USCIS did not provide them enough information to calculate the annual limits. I wonder how they calculated it for the whole year? 

DETERMINATION OF THE NUMERICAL LIMITS ON IMMIGRANTS REQUIRED UNDER THE TERMS OF THE IMMIGRATION AND NATIONALITY ACT (INA)

The State Department is required to make the determination of the worldwide numerical limitations, as outlined in Section 201(c) and (d) of the INA, on an annual basis.  These calculations are based in part on data provided by U.S. Citizen and Immigration Services (USCIS) regarding the number of immediate relative adjustments in the preceding year and the number of aliens paroled into the United States under Section 212(d)(5) in the second preceding year.  Without this information, it is impossible to make an official determination of the annual limits. To avoid delays in processing while waiting for the USCIS data, the Visa Office (VO) bases allocations on reasonable estimates of the anticipated amount of visa numbers to be available under the annual limits, in accordance with Section 203(g) of the INA.  On July 19th, USCIS provided the required data to the VO.

1 hour ago, ainsn said:

My mother (LPR) lives with me in the US as a dependent. She applied for my 3 younger brothers who have their interviews in a few weeks. I am the financial sponsor for their visas. The list of interview documents they should bring with them includes proof of domicile for our mother. I am not sure what proof to submit because she does not have any of the documents listed on this page: https://travel.state.gov/content/travel/en/us-visas/immigrate/the-immigrant-visa-process/step-1-submit-a-petition/i-864-affidavit-faqs.html#aos18

 

She has a state ID, social security card, medical bills, and I have claimed her as a dependent on my tax returns for the past 5 years. Will these suffice as proof of domicile? I wrote a letter explaining she is fully dependent on me as part of the initial paperwork she submitted. Should I write another letter for my brothers to take to their interview?

This is from Ankara embassy. 

Proof of your U.S. petitioner’s status and domicile in the United States (photocopy of a U.S. passport, naturalization certificate, or lawful permanent resident card).

https://travel.state.gov/content/travel/en/us-visas/Supplements/Supplements_by_Post/ANK-Ankara.html#pre_interview_checklist

I think state id and a medical bill is sufficient. You may include a utility bill under the name of your mother if you want. But don't forget to include a copy of LPR card.

On 4/14/2024 at 2:45 PM, limegreenbowler said:

And this exact scenario is outlined in the Adjudicator's Field Manual (the new Policy Manual isn't fully online yet, but this guidance still stands): https://www.uscis.gov/sites/default/files/document/policy-manual-afm/afm21-external.pdf 

 

Review automatic revocation on p. 68:

The grounds for automatic revocation are set forth in 8 CFR 205.1(a) . Officers should be familiar with each of the events spelled out in the regulation. Under each of these grounds, the revocation is automatic when the specified events occurs, regardless of whether USCIS is aware of its occurrence or not, and regardless of when (or even whether) USCIS provides notification of the revocation. For example, if an alien who is the beneficiary of an approved 2nd preference visa petition as the unmarried son or daughter of a lawful permanent resident marries before immigrating to the United States or adjusting status, the petition’s approval is revoked. It should be noted that although it is the event of the marriage which triggers the revocation, the revocation itself is as of the date of the petition’s approval (in automatic revocation proceedings, revocation upon notice is different). Furthermore, because the petition’s approval has been revoked, it does not become valid again if the marriage of the beneficiary is terminated through divorce or death of the beneficiary’s spouse. (However, if the marriage is annulled by a court of competent authority, the legal effect is that the marriage never occurred and therefore, neither did the revocation.) 

Thanks for the information. That's a regulation, not a law. Currently, the law remains silent on this issue.

However, due to this regulation, if one goes to court in the event of a visa denial due to marriage, he is likely to lose.

On 4/11/2024 at 10:57 PM, limegreenbowler said:

This isn't true, unless the parent naturalized before the son got married, as there is no category for married children of permanent residents. Adult children of citizens can move between F1 and F3, but as some others have pointed out, the petition was voided when he got married, even if he subsequently got divorced. The parent will need to file a new petition, and the old PD cannot be maintained.

The original question is whether the petition becomes void when her brother gets married. As I said, the law is silent on this issue, which means it's a grey area. If someone claims the petition is void, they should provide a reference to the relevant legal rule.

Regarding the brother's visa situation, if he was still married during the interview, he would not be eligible for a visa. However, since he is already divorced, his marital status at the interview will be unmarried.

The law could certainly benefit from an update to address situations like this. However, as we know, US immigration law dates back to the Immigration and Nationality Act of 1965 (INA). Back then, waiting lines for visas likely weren't a major concern!

INA 203(a)(2)(B) says that for the petition to be valid, your brother should be unmarried, which your brother satisfied in 2016. In addition to that, AFAIK, law is silent about what happens while waiting for visa. Since he is currently unmarried, I don't think there will be any problem with his interview. 

9 hours ago, RR159 said:

Well annual numerical limits came out for FY 2024 and it shows worldwide F2B limit of 26,266 (expected). It also shows 7% limit for individual foreign states AND for individual categories.

So F2B has a limit of 1,838 for any specific foreign state. 
Let’s see how it goes for Dominican Republic…

 

https://travel.state.gov/content/dam/visas/Statistics/Immigrant-Statistics/Web_Annual_Numerical_Limits_FY2024.pdf

Family preference category lost another 21,000 visas in 2023, which were rolled over to the employment category, bringing the total number of employment category visas for 2024 to 161,000 (140000+ 21,000). 

2 hours ago, Mundo254 said:

At this point now it's hard to predict what's going on at consulates and NVC. I believe the figures are inclusive of immediate relatives numbers so it's hard to tell where they may be at with family based visas. Wish we had category specific data. We keep crossing our fingers for good tidings.

 

 

You are right. Roughly, 19K of 38K is for immediate relatives. 2K is for employment preference category. 17K is for family preference category. 

6 minutes ago, appleblossom said:

They’re not ‘magically’ eliminating them. They’re being eliminated because their PD has retrogressed, or their job offer has been pulled, or their sponsor has died etc, etc. 
 

Family based visas may not have retrogressed but employment based did, so that’s a big number suddenly not eligible for an interview and pulled from the queue. 

They did the same mistake on July 2022. In July 2022, thousands of documentarily complete applications were erroneously designated with "non-allocated" status. They later corrected the calculation from 352,210 to 409,645.

8 hours ago, zaback21 said:

The 7-8k numbers are not ideal but worked without backlog. Except 2018, those are acceptable. 

 

Where's DR in 2022-23 without counting August - September has already received 12,153 visas out of 26,266 available. That's almost 50% of the world from 30-33% on average it used to receive it previously. So, it does matter. 

 

More importantly Phillipines has less people waiting for F2B than DR and they have a separate quota and DR not. I don't know how the calculations goes but no country should receive more than 7% of 26,2666 = 1839 unless other countries are not using it. 

Definitely not 12-15x more of that number. 

You are right that for fairness no country should receive more than 7% of of each sub-category. But, immigration law says that no country should receive more than 7% of the sum of both family based and employment category. It is silent about sub-categories (like F1, F2, F3, and F4). Theoretically, one country can fill one sub-category. That is not fair, for sure.

37 minutes ago, appleblossom said:

You’re looking at last months report, not the current one. The 275k figure mentioned is from this months. https://travel.state.gov/content/travel/en/us-visas/visa-information-resources/visas-backlog.html

 

The backlog is clearing, albeit slowly. The problem is that it’s clearing immediate relatives, employment based IV’s etc. The other family categories just don’t have enough available visas compared to the number of applicants to make any meaningful progress with the backlog for their categories. 

I am telling that this month's backlog data is wrong. They can NOT magically eliminate applicants from the queue. Compare the September and August data, and see for yourself. :-( 

2 hours ago, Mundo254 said:

Indeed this would be very helpful and a good indicator on where they are at in trying to clear the backlog. Last time I checked (and the best Info I have)  a person from (rest of world) with a 2015 July PD had their Interview scheduled...and that was last year in November. I wonder if anyone here knows anyone else whose had there visa issued with a PD close to the Sept 2015 cur off that has refused to move? That might also be a. good indicator if they are close to moving the dates. 

 

We'll also have to wait for October Issuance numbers to see if they are ramping up visa issuance for Family Visas. Otherwise, we might have to go wait for them to bring the down the immigrant visa backlog numbers down to 60k pre covid down from the current backlog of 275K (Which is somewhat some good news because a few months ago the backlog was at 420K). I'm starting to think the VB will not move until this happens.

Whoever wrote this  backlog report in the department of state completely messed up. 275K does not reflect the truth. 

According to https://travel.state.gov/content/dam/visas/iv-backlog-report/IV Report - August 2023.pdf

Number of eligible IV applicants still pending the scheduling of an interview after August 2023 appointment scheduling was completed was 339,081.

In the best case scenario, assume that no new applicant was documentarily qualified after August 2023.

39347 applicants scheduled for September (https://travel.state.gov/content/travel/en/us-visas/visa-information-resources/visas-backlog.html)

That left us with 299734 applicants (339081-39347 = 299734), not 275506.   That is the best case without any new documentarily qualified applicants.

Assuming that there is on average at least 20000 new DQ applicants per month, this number should be around 325000.

For the backlog analysis of each post, you can refer to the excel document at https://refugeerights.org/news-resources/nvcs-interview-scheduling-backlog-report-disclosed-a-way-to-learn-about-visa-interview-backlogs-at-consular-offices-around-the-world. 

I could not upload the excel file here due to size limit. It is very detailed document.  

9 hours ago, zaback21 said:

Visa numbers for July 2023 are in and Dominican Republic has been issued 3807 visas out of the 4615 visas left for them to cross the 7% limit, which means they only have 808 visas left this year for August and July. 

It will be interesting to see if they do cross it or suddenly USCIS decides to totally shutdown any visa issuance to help them avoid the 7% quota. 

 

There are basically 404 visas left per month for the next 2 months. 

 

Also this is the highest number of visas issued to DR this year in a single month. 

 

The limit is 29,616 for FY-2023. It is written in the second paragraph (A)(2) at https://travel.state.gov/content/travel/en/legal/visa-law0/visa-bulletin/2023/visa-bulletin-for-september-2023.html

I expect a significant forward movement in F2B category in the next three months.