How to Read Any Month of the Visa Bulletin
In this video, produced by Andres Mejer Law, we walk you through how to read and #understandtheVisaBulletin. Why is this important? If you are being sponsored by a family member, or sponsoring one, this is the FIRST STEP in the process. Once you know how long this will take, you can review our other video, (link to that) and check out how to find individual USCIS office’s processing time. You must LOOK AT BOTH in order to have a good idea of how long your processing can take.
Transcript (Transcripción):
Voice :Welcome to today’s program. Para Ser Legal We are continuing the directions for how to check how long your USCIS case will take. By showing you how to check the visa bulletin. Don’t forget to subscribe and check out the description for links to USCIS information. What is the visa bulletin? This is a monthly publication issued by the Department of State that lists all the categories of immigrants and when a green card becomes available. It also displays the corresponding priority dates. Why do you need to read it? Because first year I 1/30 will be approved. If it is denied. You will not need to read the visa bulletin because you are not telling Jubal to receive a visa even if it were to become available. And then you will need to wait until a visa is available to come to the U.S. and obtain a green card. When reading the visa bulletin, you will need to note two things. Number one is the priority date. We talked about earlier from your isEven 97 CE saying your eye 130 was filed with U.S. C.I.s and number two, what your preference category is. What is a preference category? It is how it is related to you. It is what is used to determine who gets the limited number of visas and green cards available. People in a higher preference category get them first.
Voice: Since there is a limited number for each country every year, the people in the lower categories are having a lower preference are usually going to have a longer wait time until a visa becomes available. In addition to the preference category, you also need to pay attention to the category of which country you are emigrating from. That is because there are so many applicants from certain countries. For example, Mexico, the Philippines, China and India. Some countries have much longer wait times than others. There are also a limited number of visas for those applying for employment based visas and different processing times for those. Our office handles mostly family based petitions and that is all we are going to cover in this video. There are two sections of the visa bulletin. One is the final action dates section. You will look at this to determine if your visa petition can be approved and if there is a green card available. The second section is Dates for Filing. This is the one most used by immigrants who are filing for an immigration benefit and live outside the United States. If there is a current or C.. This means that your priority date is current and you can apply for a green card if there is a cutoff date. That means that your priority date must be before this cutoff date.
Voice:To be eligible to apply for a green card if there is a visa retrogression. This means that the cutoff date moved back usually a month because there are no green cards available for that category. This often happens toward the end of the government’s fiscal year. Let’s review the preference categories if one is unmarried adult over age 21. Sons and daughters of U.S. citizens. EF2 A. Our spouses and unmarried children under the age of 21 of permanent residence. F to be unmarried adults. Sons and daughters of permanent residents. EF3 Married sons and daughters. Any age of U.S. citizens. Four brothers and sisters of adult U.S. citizens.
Voice: When reviewing the visa bulletin, keep in mind that when the priority date of your immigrating relative based on their category is current, they can now apply for a green card. You should be notified by the National Visa Center within a month of their priority date becoming parent. But it doesn’t hurt to check this every month in case the A.V fails to notify you in a timely manner. Once current, you will need to file a knife for a D5 and the other documentation necessary. We can do this for you quickly and easily. The other way to check the processing times for cases and to get an idea of how long your case processing might take is to check the USCIS website for case processing times when you do this. You will need to know what form has been filed and what office it has. been filed through.
Voice: Some offices are quicker than others. Sometimes people have thought if an office such as Vermont is fast, I should move there temporarily to have my papers processed more quickly. We don’t recommend this. Many of the forms require that you live in the location of where it is being processed for a set period of time before applying. Also, if you move during the processing, your application could be transferred and this might delay it even further. The processing times do not include requests for more information. Our Effie’s or A.I.D. Which are notices of intent to deny know that if you receive one of these, your application may be delayed. We hope that you found this video helpful. While we know that you don’t need an attorney to complete your immigration paperwork, we always recommend hiring one. We have handled hundreds of cases successfully for our clients and can help you do it right from the start. Thanks for watching this week’s video. Don’t forget to share and subscribe until next time.
