Retrogression of Visas from India

VISAS WENT BACK (RETROGRESSION) FOR INDIA FOR ALL CATEGORIES
Lal Varghese, Attorney at Law, Dallas

The U. S. Department of State (DOS) is responsible for issuance of visas by administering the provisions of the Immigration and Nationality Act (INA) relating to the numerical limitations on immigrant visa issuances. There is fixed quota of visas for each country for each category both under family category and employment category for each immigration fiscal year. The immigration fiscal year begins on October 1st and ends on September 30th of each year, which means the quota for each year will be released on October 1st of each year to be allotted throughout that year until September 30th, in each month for each category based on the basis of the priority date of the applicants waiting in line for visas from each country.

At the beginning of each month, the Visa Office (VO) at the DOS receives a report from each consular office from around the world listing total number of documentarily qualified immigrant visa applicants in categories subject to numerical limitation. Cases are grouped by foreign state chargeability/preference/priority date without revealing the names of the applicants. During the first week of each month, this documentarily qualified demand is tabulated. VO subdivides the annual preference and foreign state limitations specified by the INA into monthly allotments. The totals of documentarily qualified applicants, which have been reported to VO, are compared each month with the numbers available for the next regular allotment. The determination of how many numbers are available requires consideration of several of variables, including: past number use; estimates of future number use and return rates; and estimates of Citizenship and Immigration Service demand based on cut-off date movements. Once this is done, the cut-off dates are established and numbers are allocated to reported applicants in order of their priority dates, the oldest dates first.

If there are sufficient numbers in a particular category to satisfy all reported documentarily qualified demand, the category is considered "Current". For example: If the monthly allocation target is 3,000 and the VO has only demand for 1,000 applicants the category can be "Current”. Whenever the total of documentarily qualified applicants in a category exceeds the supply of numbers available for allotment for the particular month, the category is considered to be "oversubscribed" and a visa availability cut-off date is established. The cut-off date is the priority date of the first documentarily qualified applicant who could not be accommodated for a visa number. For example: If the monthly target is 3,000 and DOS has demand for 8,000 applicants, then VO would need to establish a cut-off date so that only 3,000 numbers would be allocated. In this case, the cut-off would be the priority date of the 3,001st applicant. Only persons with a priority date earlier than a cut-off date are entitled to allotment of a visa number. The cut-off dates are the 1st, 8th, 15th, and 22nd of a month, since VO groups demand for numbers under these dates. (Priority dates of the first through seventh of a month are grouped under the 1st, the eighth through the fourteenth under the 8th, etc.)

VO attempts to establish the cut-off dates for the following month on or about the 8th of each month. The dates are immediately transmitted to consular posts and Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS), and also published at its web site www.travel.state.gov. Visa allotments for use during that month are transmitted to consular posts. USCIS requests visa allotments for adjustment of status cases only when all other case processing has been completed. If there is more demand for visas from documentarily qualified applicants than the allotted visas in a year, the VO retrogresses the cut-off dates in an attempt to hold issuances within the annual numerical limits. In certain cases some categories will become unavailable ("U") when the annual numerical limit has been reached for that categories.

Applicants entitled to immigrant status become documentarily qualified at their own initiative and convenience. By no means has every applicant with a priority date earlier than a prevailing cut-off date been processed for final visa action. On the contrary, visa allotments are made only on the basis of the total applicants reported documentarily qualified each month. Demand for visa numbers can fluctuate from one month to another, with the inevitable impact on cut-off dates. If an applicant is reported documentarily qualified but allocation of a visa number is not possible because of a visa availability cut-off date, the demand is recorded at VO and an allocation is made as soon as the applicable cut-off date advances beyond the applicant's priority date. There is no need for such applicant to be reported a second time. Visa numbers are always allotted for all documentarily qualified applicants with a priority date before the relevant cut-off date, as long as the case had been reported to VO in time to be included in the monthly calculation of visa availability. Failure of visa number receipt by the overseas processing office could mean that the request was not dispatched in time to reach VO for the monthly allocation cycle, or that information on the request was incomplete or inaccurate.

If we examine closely the visa allocation under F-4 category (brothers and sisters of U. S citizens) from India since 1992 it can be seen that only four times the visa numbers had been retrogressed. Since 1992 the first retrogression occurred in the month of September 1996 at which time visas were retrogressed from Oct. 08, 1984 to July 01, 1984. The second retrogression occurred in 2003 July when visas retrogressed from July 08, 1991 to March 22, 1991. Another sudden retrogression occurred again in the month of September in 2003 at which time the visas retrogressed from May 22, 1990 to January 01, 1990. After 8 years at present in February 2011 the largest retrogression occurred where visas went back from current level of January 01, 2002 to January 01, 2000. The above is only for F-4 category from India. The retrogression happened in almost all other family categories and also for all other countries including China, Philippines and Mexico along with India the countries from where majority of the immigrants are coming to United States. There is no way of predicting when the visas will come back to the level from where it was retrogressed. But the National Visa Center (NVC) under the DOS will continue to accept the visa fee and affidavit of support fee, affidavit of support and DS forms and original documents, but will hold the files until the visa becomes available to schedule the interview at the consulate. It is to be remembered that in order to be qualified for allotment of visas and for scheduling the interview the applicants must be documentarily qualified. It is always advisable to contact experienced immigration attorneys to process your approved petitions at NVC since all paper works are done at NVC including scheduling of interview at the consulates.

Disclaimer: Lal Varghese, Attorney at Law does not claim authorship for above referenced information. Lal Varghese, Attorney at Law or the publisher is not responsible or liable for anything stated above, since it is generalized information about the subject matters collected from various sources including Department of Homeland Security, Department of Justice, State Department, Federal Register, and American Immigration Lawyer’s Association (AILA) Advocacy Center, and other legal sources. For individual cases and specific questions you are advised to consult an attorney of your choice or contact the agencies mentioned above. You may visit our website at: www.indiaimmigrationusa.com or www.indiaimmigrationusa.blogspot.com
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