The State Department has released their visa bulletin for May, 2021. The monthly bulletin provides important information for both adjustment of status applicants who are based in the United States and filing for a green card, as well as foreign nationals who are applying for a visa via consular processing. The visa bulletin is always broken down into Employment based visas and Family based green cards.
In addition, the State Department uses the terminology of “final action dates” which means that a decision has been made regarding an applicants green card application, as well as “Dates for Filing”. The dates for filing category mainly applies to consular processing applicants to know when they will be able to submit all of their application materials to the NVC.
Family Based Immigration
In the final action dates category, F2A remains current for al country applicants.
The F1 category (for unmarried sons and daughters of U.S. citizens) is still seeing long wait times across the board. Mainland Chinese applicants and Indian applicants have a final action date of October 22nd, 2014 in this category.
In the F2B category (unmarried sons and daughters, 21 years or older of LPRs) the wait times are approximately one year less for mainland Chinese and Indian applicants with a final action date of August 15th, 2015.
Mexican applicants in all of the final action family based categories have the longest wait times by far, stretching into 1998 and 1999.
Third and fourth preference family applicants have long wait times across the board because of their lower priority and allotment of visas. Mainland Chinese and Indian applicants have a final action date of November 8th, 2006 and April 15th, 2005, respectively. Applicants from the Philippines in F4 have a final action date of May 1st, 2002.
In the dates for filing for family based immigration, no one category has a “Current” date.
The F2A category is again the fastest processing time, with every country applicant having a date for filing in April of 2021.
Other dates are largely similar to the final action dates listed above for F1, F2B, F3 and F4 categories.
Employment Based Immigration
The trend continues in the employment based immigration system of having many “Current” dates for applicants both in terms of final action dates and dates for filing. Exceptions continue for mainland Chinese and Indian applicants, for whom the USCIS sees the most employment based applications in multiple categories.
Mainland Chinese applicants have a “Current” final action date for 1st, 4th, and Certain Religious Workers, The bulletin remains oversubscribed for applicants in the 2nd, 3rd, Other Workers and Immigrant Investor categories.
Central American employment based applicants have a “Current” final action date in every category except Certain Religious Workers and 4th preference. These two remain oversubscribed.
Indian employment based applicants have a final action date summary similar to that of China. 2nd, 3rd, and Other Workers categories remain oversubscribed. Unlike China, the Immigrant Investor category has a “Current” final action date.
Mexican applicants have a “Current” final action date in every category except 4th preference and Certain Religious Workers.
Applicants from the Philippines have a “Current” final action date in every employment based category. Applicants from Vietnam have a “Current” final action date in every category except for Immigrant Investors which remains oversubscribed this month.
The dates for filing chart in the employment based category is similar to the final action dates listed above, with some notable differences too:
Mainland Chinese applicants are still “Current” in every employment based date for filing category except the 2nd, 3rd, Other Workers and Immigrant Investors categories.
Central American applicants have a “Current” date for filing in every category except for 4th preference and Certain Religious Workers.
Indian applicants are currently oversubscribed in the 2nd, 3rd, and Other Workers category, while every other date for filing category is “Current”.
Employment based applicants from Mexico and the Philippines have a “Current” date for filing in every category listed.
Link to this months bulletin:
