Federal Agencies, Visa Bulletins

Visa Bulletin for April 2000

IMMIGRANT NUMBERS FOR APRIL 2000

A. STATUTORY NUMBERS (This communication provides priority dates and other transitional information as taken from the State Department's Visa Bulletin released March 13, 2000.) On the following chart, the listing of a date for any class indicates that the class is oversubscribed; "C" means current, i.e., numbers are available for all qualified applicants; and "U" means unavailable, i.e., no numbers are available.

PREFERENCE
	        All Charge-
		ability Areas		CHINA-   	        
		Except Those		Mainland    	        
		Listed			born	   INDIA	MEXICO	    PHILIPPINES

Family

1st		 08DEC98		08DEC98	   08DEC98     01NOV93     08APR88
2A*             01JAN96			01JAN96	   01JAN96     01JUL94	    01JAN96
2B              22JAN93			22JAN93	   22JAN93     01SEP91	    22JAN93
3rd             22NOV95			22NOV95	   22NOV95     15JAN92	    15NOV87
4th             15DEC88			15DEC88	   22MAY87     15DEC88	    01AUG79

*NOTE: For APRIL, 2A numbers EXEMPT from per-country limit are available to applicants from all countries with priority dates earlier than 01JUL94. 2A numbers SUBJECT to per-country limit are available to applicants chargeable to all countries EXCEPT MEXICO with priority dates beginning 01JUL94 and earlier than 01JAN96. (All 2A numbers provided for MEXICO are exempt from the per-country limit; there are no 2A numbers for MEXICO subject to per-country limit.)

        All Charge-	          
		ability Areas	CHINA-   	          
		Except Those	mainland    	          
		Listed		born	    INDIA     MEXICO	PHILIPPINES

Employment-  
    Based
1st                C	        C	    C	      C	        C   
2nd                C	        01JUL97	    01JAN99   C	        C 
3rd                C	        01JAN97	    01JAN97   C	        C     
Other              01JUN94	01JUN94	    01JUN94   01JUN94	01JUN94    
Workers
4th                C	        C	    C	      C	        C  
Certain            C	        C	    C	      C	        C       
Religious				      
Workers
5th                C            C	    C	      C	        C   
Targeted Employ-   C            C	    C	      C	        C     
  ment Areas/    
  Regional Centers

The Department of State has available a recorded message with visa availability information which can be heard at (202) 663-1541. This recording will be updated in the middle of each month with information on cut-off dates for the following month.

ADDITIONAL HIGHLIGHTS FROM THE APRIL VISA BULLETIN

B. DIVERSITY IMMIGRANT (DV) CATEGORY

Section 203(c) of the Immigration and Nationality Act provides 55,000 immigrant visas each fiscal year to permit immigration opportunities for persons from countries other than the principal sources of current immigration to the United States. DV visas are divided among six geographic regions. No one country can receive more than seven percent of the available diversity visas in any one year.

For APRIL, immigrant numbers in the DV category are available to qualified DV-2000 applicants chargeable to all regions/eligible countries as follows. When an allocation cut-off number is shown, visas are available only for applicants with DV regional lottery rank numbers BELOW the specified allocation cut-off number:

		    All DV Charge-                 
		    ability Areas                 
		    Except Those  
Region              Listed Separately  

AFRICA              AF	16,780		Except:	Ghana AF 6,620
						Nigeria AF 8,060

ASIA                AS	6,630

EUROPE              EU	16,170		Except:	Albania EU 10,130

NORTH AMERICA       NA	24
(BAHAMAS)  

OCEANIA             OC	803

SOUTH AMERICA,      SA	1,740
  CENTRAL AMERICA,    
  and the CARIBBEAN

Entitlement to immigrant status in the DV category lasts only through the end of the fiscal (visa) year for which the applicant is selected in the lottery. The year of entitlement for all applicants registered for the DV-2000 program ends as of September 30, 2000. DV visas may not be issued to DV-2000 applicants after that date. Similarly, spouses and children accompanying or following to join DV-2000 principals are only entitled to derivative DV status until September 30, 2000. DV visa availability through the very end of FY-2000 cannot be taken for granted. Numbers could be exhausted prior to September 30. Once all numbers provided by law for the DV-2000 program have been used, no further issuances will be possible.

27MMVIS.APR 2000

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