Federal Agencies, Visa Bulletins

Visa Bulletin for December 1999

IMMIGRANT NUMBERS FOR DECEMBER 1999

A. STATUTORY NUMBERS (This communication provides priority dates and other transitional information as taken from the State Department's Visa Bulletin released November 12, 1999.) 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	   	        
		Except Those	    	        
		Listed		INDIA		MEXICO		PHILIPPINES

Family

1st		 15SEP98	15SEP98		22OCT93		22MAR88
2A*              15SEP95	15SEP95		22JUN94		15SEP95
2B               22NOV92	22NOV92		22AUG91		22NOV92
3rd              08OCT95	08OCT95		01JUL91		15NOV87
4th              22SEP88	15MAR87		22SEP88		15JUL79

*NOTE: For DECEMBER, 2A numbers EXEMPT from per-country limit are available to applicants from all countries with priority dates earlier than 22JUN94. 2A numbers SUBJECT to per-country limit are available to applicants chargeable to all countries EXCEPT MEXICO with priority dates beginning 22JUN94 and earlier than 15SEP95. (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	  	          
		Except Those	    	          
		Listed		INDIA		MEXICO    	PHILIPPINES

Employment-  
    Based
1st                C	        C	    	C	      	C	          
2nd                C	        C	    	C	      	C	        
3rd                C	        C	    	C         	C	            
Other              01SEP93	01SEP93	    	01SEP93   	01SEP93	   
Workers
4th                C	        C	    	C	      	C	        
Certain            C	        C	    	C	      	C	            
Religious				      
Workers
5th                C            C	    	C	      	C	        
Targeted Employ-   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 DECEMBER 1999 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 DECEMBER, 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 Chargeability Areas
		Except Those
Region		Listed Separately

AFRICA		AF 12,800	Except:	Ghana AF 6,040
				Nigeria AF 5,801
ASIA		AS 4,940
EUROPE		EU 14,200	Except:  Albania EU 4,501
NORTH AMERICA	NA 15
(BAHAMAS)
OCEANIA		OC 753
SOUTH AMERICA,	SA 1,650
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.DEC 99

© 1999, American Immigration Lawyers Association