China

The U.S. Department of State has provided further information regarding the Visa Bulletin’s EB-2 and EB-3 Categories for the month of July 2008. The DOS claims that under the Immigration and Nationality Act, if the total demand for visas in an employment preference category is insufficient to use the unused numbers may be made available without regard to the annual per-country limit. For example, the second preference annual limits were 40,000, however number use by “All Other Countries” was estimated to be only 25,000. The China/India combined number use based on their per-country limits were 6,000, with 9,000 numbers unused. The DOS determined that the demand from “All Other Countries” for second preference numbers, plus the quantity of numbers available under the China and India second preference per-country limit, would be insufficient to use all available numbers under the annual limit for this category. Therefore, unused numbers have been made available to China and India second preference applicants. Because such unused numbers must be made available strictly in priority date order, the China and India applicants have been subject to the same cut-off date as worldwide applicants. In addition the DOS claims that in providing the unused numbers to China and India “in no way disadvantages applicants from any other country and helps to insure that the worldwide annual limit can be reached”. The latest Visa Bulletin containing this and other information on priority dates is available at Visa Bulletin - Employment.