January 18th, 2024 at 12:16 am
New February 2024 Visa Bulletin – DV Employment-Based Green Card | Visa Bulletin Update
We will discuss the February 2024 Visa Bulletin in this update. This bulletin lists the dates for filing applications and the final action dates for immigrant numbers available in February. It also specifies when applicants for immigrant visas should be contacted to gather and submit the necessary paperwork to the National Visa Center.
To find out when they can submit petitions for an adjustment of status with USCIS, applicants can refer to the Final Action Dates charts provided below. The USCIS website will indicate that applicants may use the Dates for Filing Visa applications in its place if it finds that there are more immigrant visas available for the fiscal year than there are known applicants for such visas.
1. Procedures for Determining Dates
Consular officers are expected to documentarily report qualifying applications for numerically limited visas to the Department of State. For requests received by January 10, USCIS notifies applicants of status adjustments and the chronological order of claimed priority dates. The category or foreign state where the demand was excessive was considered oversubscribed if it could not be supplied in full.
The priority date of the first applicant who could not be contacted within the allotted time frame is the Final Action Date for an oversubscribed category. Supplementary requests for numbers will only be fulfilled if the priority date falls within the new Final Action Date specified in this bulletin, should it become necessary to retrogress a final action date during the monthly allocation procedure.
Should a yearly cap be reached at any point, the preference category would need to be made unavailable right away, and no more requests for numbers would be fulfilled.
2. The Fiscal Year 2024 Limit for Family-Sponsored Preference Immigrants Determined
226,000, as per the Immigration and Nationality Act (INA), Section 201. There are at least 140,000 yearly immigrants with employment-based preferences in the world. According to Section 202, the annual sum of the 25,620 family-sponsored and employment-based preference limits shall be the maximum amount that may be immigrated per nation for preference immigrants. The dependent area limit is 7,320 or 2% of the total area.
3. INA Section 203
INA according to Section 203, eligible immigrants will get employment-based preference visas and visas sponsored by their families in the order in which their petitions have been filed. Spouses and children of preference immigrants are entitled to the same status and consideration order, if they accompany or follow the principal, according to Section 203.
When the number of visas issued exceeds the cap for each nation, the visa prorating rules of Section 202 apply to allocations for a foreign state or dependent region. Currently, the following overcrowded chargeability regions are covered by these provisions: Born in China’s interior, India, Mexico, and the Philippines
4. Preference classes are outlined in Section 203 of the INA for the distribution of family-sponsored immigration visas.
Family-sponsored preferences
- (F1) Unmarried Sons and Daughters of US citizens: 23,400 plus any number is not required for fourth preference
- Spouses and children and unmarried Sons and Daughters of permanent residents: 14,200 plus the number by which the worldwide family preference level exceeds 226,000
- (F2A) Spouses and children of permanent residence: 77% of the overall second preference limitation of which 75% are exempt from the per-country limit
- (F2B) Unmarried Sons and Daughters (21 years of age or older) of permanent residents: 23% of the overall second preference limitation
- (F3) Married Sons and Daughters of US citizens: 23,400 plus any numbers not required by first and second preferences
- (F4) Brothers and sisters of Adult US citizens: 65,000
February 2024 Updates
F2A numbers exempt from the per-country limit may be issued to applicants from any nation in February if their priority date is earlier than 01FEB20. F2A numbers, subject to a cap per nation, may be issued to applicants for payment to any country other than Mexico, with priority dates starting on 01FEB20.
All F2A numbers supplied for Mexico before to 08FEB20 are free from the per-country cap. applicants for immigrant visas who send the necessary paperwork to the Department of State’s National Visa Center and receive a priority date sooner than the application deadline. The priority date of the first applicant who is unable to provide the necessary evidence for the national visa established for an immigrant visa is the application date for an oversubscribed category.
All applicants in the applicable category may submit applications if a category is declared as “current,” regardless of their priority date.
Employment-Based Preference
Priority workers
- 28.6% of the worldwide employment-based preference level plus any numbers not required for fourth and fifth preferences
- Members of the professions holding Advanced degrees or persons of exceptional ability
- 28.6% of the worldwide employment-based preference level
Skilled workers, professionals, and other workers
- 28.6% of the worldwide level plus any numbers not required by first and second preferences
Certain special immigrants
- 7.1% of the worldwide level of employment creation
- 7.1% the worldwide level of which 32% are Reserve as follows;
- 20% reserve for qualified immigrants who invest in a rural area
- 10% reserved for qualified immigrants who invest in a high unemployment area
- 2% reserved for qualified immigrants who invest in infrastructure projects
The remaining 68% are unreserved and are allotted for all other qualified immigrants
DV Category for the Month of February
To prevent people from countries with low admission rates during the preceding five years from having more opportunities to immigrate, Section 203(c) of the INA allows for the issuance of up to 55,000 immigrant visas per fiscal year. NACARA mandates that up to 5,000 of the 55,000 diversity visas allotted yearly will be made available for use under the NACARA program, starting with DV-99 and continuing for as long as necessary.
If NACARA applicants are given access to visa numbers in FY 2023, the DV-2024 yearly limit will be lowered to roughly 54,850.
For the fiscal year 2024, Section 5104 of the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) modified the NACARA provisions for the Diversity Visa program. The 55,000 DVs allotted each year will be subtracted from the quantity of visas made available under the NDAA. The amount of available diversity visas won’t change as a result of these revisions until FY 2025.
DVs are divided into six geographic regions
In any one year, no nation may obtain more than 7% of the available diversity visas. Per HR 6363, which was signed on November 16, 2023, the special immigrant program for non-ministers will end on February 2, 2024.
After February 1, 2024, at midnight, no SR visas will be granted abroad, and no decisions regarding adjustment of status cases will be made. Before that date, visas will only be valid until February 1, 2024, and anyone applying for admission under the non-minister special immigrant category must enter the country by midnight on February 1, 2024.
The same final action deadlines apply to the SR category, which is available. The other employment fourth preference categories for February according to the relevant foreign state of chargeability. Should legislation not be taken to extend the category The category will instantly become “Unavailable” as of February 2, 2023, if it is beyond that date.
The stated dates shall stay in force for the balance of February unless legislative action is taken to extend the category beyond February 2.
US Government Employment Special Immigration Visas
The National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) for fiscal year 2024, ratified on December 22, 2023, may impact certain current and former US government personnel filing for SIVs or status adjustments under Section 101 of the IIA while living overseas. Certain Afghans and Iraqis applying for SQ SIVs are unaffected by this. For additional information on how that statute affects their case, applicants should get in touch with the consoler department with which they filed their form DS-1884.