April 2015 Visa Bulletin - Q & A about the Visa Bulletin.
What is the Visa Bulletin?
A: The Visa Bulletin is made public every month by the Department of State for several reasons.
- It is used to determine immigrant visas availability every month.
- One needs to know the country of chargeability (Mexico, India, China, Phillipenes or other), preference category, and priority date (stamp on your i-130 petition)
- Only beneficiary with a priority date earlier than the cut-off date on the bulletin is allocated a visa (meaning a visa is available to them).
Q:
What are the Family Preference Categories?
A: If you are not an immediate relative (spouses and children of USCs as well as parents of USCs), you fall into one of the following categories.
1st category: Adult sons and daughters of United States Citizens.
2A category: Spouses and Children of Legal Permanent Residents (Green Card holders)
2B category: Adult unmarried sons and daughters of Legal Permanent Residents.
(Green Card holders).
3rd category: Married sons and daughters of United States Citizens.
4th category: Siblings of United States Citizens.
Q:
How do you determine your priority date?
A: A priority date is given to you by the USCIS when you properly submit a I-130 petition form with the applicable fee. You can use this priority date to determine if a Visa is available, where it's 'current', to you through the Visa Bulletin (if you fall into one of the preference categories)
Q:
How do you know if a Visa is 'current' meaning available?
A: If you are an immediate relative of a USC, a visa is available to you quickly. If you are not, you will have to go through the Visa Bulletin every month to see whether or not a visa is available to you.
- One needs to know the country of chargeability (Mexico, India, China, Phillipenes or other), preference category, and priority date (stamp on your i-130 petition)
- Only beneficiary with a priority date earlier than the cut-off date on the bulletin is allocated a visa (meaning a visa is available to them).
You can find the April 2015 Visa Bulletin here.
Questions? Contact us!