The U.S. Department of State (DOS) publishes the immigration visa bulletin each month based on the usage of immigration quotas, which is the immigration visa bulletin schedule that everyone sees each month. How does the Department of State establish the immigration visa bulletin dates?
Every month, the Department of State, the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS), and the U.S. Department of Labor hold regular meetings to discuss the usage of immigration quotas. Based on the current usage, the Department of State adjusts the immigration visa bulletin. If the USCIS requires a large number of quotas in a given month, the Department of State will pause the progress of the immigration visa bulletin. If necessary, the Department of State may even retrogress the immigration visa bulletin.
The USCIS has a significant backlog of cases for various reasons, with some cases having very early priority dates. These cases will not receive immigration quotas until the USCIS completes its review. If the USCIS implements new policies that result in a large number of backlog applications being approved, the USCIS will request a large number of immigration quotas from the Department of State during that month's regular meeting, leading to the phenomenon of retrogression in the immigration visa bulletin.
Currently, one significant factor contributing to the long wait times for employment-based immigration second and third preference categories is that since 2008, the USCIS and the FBI have expedited the background check process. This has reduced the number of applicants waiting for background checks for over six months from 300,000 to 30,000. Many applications that were previously stalled due to background checks have been approved by the USCIS. This batch of applications with earlier priority dates has utilized a large number of immigration quotas, thus significantly impacting the progress of the immigration visa bulletin.
To more accurately formulate immigration visa bulletin policies, the Department of State and the USCIS adopted a new approval process after May 2007. This process allows the USCIS to complete all approval steps, including FBI background checks, without having immigration quotas available. Approved applications are directly registered in the Department of State's database. As a result, the Department of State will directly know how many applications in the database meet the conditions for obtaining a green card in its monthly immigration visa bulletin planning.
Of course, the ultimate factor determining the immigration visa bulletin is the annual immigration cap passed by Congress. What the Department of State and the USCIS can provide is a more efficient approval of green card applications based on this cap. Increasing the annual immigration cap, especially for countries like China and India, which have long wait times and large numbers of immigrants, is essential to ultimately resolve the immigration visa bulletin issue.