VISA SPOTLIGHT - FAMILY IMMIGRATION CATEGORIES

US immigration law contains an immigrant selection system which contains numerical caps on immigration and sets various preference categories governing the allocation of visas. 465,000 numbers are allocated for family immigrants and the number may be increased by the number of employment-based visas not used in the previous year (approximately 65,000 employment visas went unused in the most recent fiscal year).

The Immigration and Nationality Act provides for two basic categories of immigrants - immediate relatives and preference immigrants. Immediate relatives include spouses of US citizens, children under the age of 21 of US citizens, and parents of US citizens. The second type of immigrant category, preference immigrants, includes four major categories. First preference immigrants include unmarried sons and daughters of US citizens who are over the age of 21. Second Preference immigrants include spouses or children under the age of 21 of US permanent residents (this is referred to as the 2A preference) and unmarried sons or daughters over the age of 21 of US permanent residents (referred to as the 2B preference category). The Third Preference category is reserved for married children of US citizens. The Fourth Preference category is for brothers and sisters of adult US citizens. Spouses and children of principal immigrants are entitled to the same status as the parent or spouse.

Of the 480,000 visas allotted for family immigration, 254,000 are reserved for immediate relatives. The remainder are reserved for the preference categories with numbers being allocated on a "spill-down" basis from the first preference to the fourth category. If more than 254,000 visas are required for immediate relatives, the overall ceiling on family immigration will be raised. The law also sets a per country cap of seven percent of the total immigrant pool. Consequently, in certain preference categories, nationals of some countries face a longer wait.

Because there may be more applicants than visas available for the various family preference categories, backlogs can develop. Every applicant is assigned a priority date on the date the Petition for Alien Relative (Form I-130) is accepted for processing. Visas are issued to applicants according to the assigned priority dates. The State Department announces every month which priority dates are being processed for each preference category. Those numbers are included in this bulletin.

If an applicant changes status after a priority date is received such that the applicant would be eligible in a new preference category, the applicant's preference category automatically converts to the new category. For example, if a US permanent resident becomes a citizen, then the parent's adult child will have his or her status convert from the F2B preference category to the F1 category. On the other hand, if the applicant's status changes and there is no preference category that applies, the applicant will lose his or her priority date even if they later reacquire eligibility in a visa category. For example, if an adult child of a permanent resident marries, the child would lose his or her priority date even if the parent becomes a citizen and the applicant would be eligible in the F3 category. The applicant would need to reapply for a new priority date when the parent becomes a citizen since the original priority date was lost when the child married.