In this blog post, Shantanu Pandey, from Rajiv Gandhi National University of Law Punjab, discusses various aspects concerning visa bulletins.
Migrating to the United States and getting a permanent citizenship there, for different purposes is a significant way for obtaining a green card. However, the visa process is quite lengthy and often creates confusion among the classes of immigrants which in turn delays the issuance of green cards to the applicants. The concept of visa bulletins has, however, helped to curb the delay in the publication of the visa to a great extent. This article would deal with various aspects which are specifically concerned to the visa bulletins.
Meaning of Visa Bulletins
A visa bulletin refers to a monthly publication which is being published by the department of state every month to serve as a guiding matter to the counselors and the applicants, who have applied for an immigrant visa to get a permanent citizenship in the United States. The visa bulletin contains the names of the candidates who have applied for an immigrant visa along with the cutoff dates and the priority dates which are available for a particular country as per the availability of the visa. The visa bulletin contains a list of immigrant visas available in the family based category. However, in the case of an immediate relative, like spouses and children, immigrant visas are readily available for them as they are being included in the category of first preference.
The concept of priority date
The concept of priority date is quite confusing for the applicants who are applying for a green card for establishing a permanent residence in the United States. The idea of priority date is a concept which determines as to when the individual of a particular country who has applied for a green card would be able to file an application for the adjustment of status (I-485) application. The concept of priority dates also determines as to when an applicant who had applied for the visa can get an immigrant visa through consular processing. The importance of priority dates is that when a foreign citizen had applied for a green card. The priority dates in the visa bulletin state the time as to whether the applicant can get his immigrant visa or whether one can be granted the adjustment of status after one has filed I-485 or one can be granted an immigrant visa through the consular process. These are also known as cut off dates. The cut-off dates are compared up with the priority dates to check, whether an applicant who has applied for a green card would be able to obtain a green card after the approval of I-485 or through a consular process.
Process to establish a priority date
The visa bulletin contains two categories for getting a green card or an immigrant visa namely employment visa immigration and family based immigration. In the case of employment-based immigration, the priority date can be established by two ways. One way of determining the priority date in the event of employment based immigration is through the labour certificate. In the cases requiring labour certificate, the officially acknowledged priority date is the date when the case is being filed with the US Department of labour. In the cases where labour certificate is not required then the priority date is assigned on the date when the applicant has duly submitted the I-40 application to the US Citizenship and Immigration Services(USCIS). However, if one wants to obtain an immigrant visa through a family based petition, in that case, the priority date would be assigned by the date when the I-30 petition for the alien relative is duly submitted by the prominent citizen to the United States and immigration services. However, the first preference relatives, i.e., the spouse and the children can easily get a green card as there is no backlog in this category in most of the cases.
Changes introduced in the Visa Bulletin since 2015
Before 2015, the cut-off dates and the dates of final action were being laid down in the visa bulletin in the same chart. However, in the year 2015, with the intention of speeding up the process and avoid confusion regarding the priority dates, the department of state had made a provision for dual charts to be laid down in the visa bulletin. The first table represents the date of final action[1]. Through this table, the applicant can get to know as to when one is eligible to obtain a green card or an immigrant visa. On the other hand, the second chart indicates the dates when the applicants who have applied for a green card or an immigrant visa will be required to assemble and submit the documents to the national visa center. Under this system applicants of specified category are eligible to file an I-485 well in advance of green cards being available to the applicants. Every month the department of state publishes a visa bulletin in which a limitation is being laid down in the number of immigrant visa and green cards that can be issued from a particular country. The visa bulletins contain the current dates and the priority dates. The current dates indicate that there are enough number of permits available for a citizen of a particular country and one can file an I-485 petition or an I-30 petition, and one is eligible to obtain a green card.
In a case, under the visa bulletin, the FA chart indicates that the demand for visa exceeds the number of visas available, then under the FA chart, the department of state introduces the concept of a cut-off date. Beyond this date, the foreign national is not eligible to file an I-485 petition, and one is either not eligible to obtain a green card. Visa bulletins are issued in advance for the upcoming month by the department of the state. However, if the FA chart shows that the current date as per the priority date is not available for September, but, it says that in the month of October current dates are available for the visa and the applicant files an I-485 petition, which reaches the (USCIS) before the current date, then the USCIS would reject the application of the applicant at once.
Benefits of filing an adjustment application for obtaining a green card
As soon as the candidate is filing an I-485 application, irrespective of the case whether it is approved or not, the applicant who has applied for the adjustment of status is eligible to demand the benefits which are given to the applicant who has filed an application for adjustment of status. Therefore the visa bulletins are of great help to the counsellors and various groups of individuals and are considered to be a very relevant concept in the current scenario.
Reference:
[1]“Retrieved From,www.travel.state.gov/visa bulletin”
