November 16, 2004

Employment Based Third Preference Category to Retrogress in January

Immigrant visas are numerically limited by category and by country of chargeability (which is in most cases one's country of birth). The worldwide level for annual employment-based preference immigrants is set at 140,000. No more than twenty-seven percent of the employment annual limit may be used in each of the first three quarters in the fiscal year. Each foreign national is given a “priority date” for their permanent residence application. The priority date is the foreign national’s “place” in the line of those applying for employment-based visas. For more than a year, these dates have remained current for all employment based categories. However, due to recent demand in the employment-based categories, USCIS has begun to address their backlog of cases. Accordingly, it is anticipated that the employment-based third preference category will likely retrogress in January 2005 for China, India and the Philippines chargeability areas. The third preference category is set aside for skilled workers and professionals. No retrogression is anticipated at this time for other employment-based categories. We will provide updates on this issue as soon as the Department of State releases the numbers for January. The current visa bulletin can be viewed at: http://travel.state.gov/visa/frvi_bulletincurrent.html.