February 2011 Visa Bulletin: Frozen in Time

Post date: Jan 26, 2011 11:50:56 PM

By Carl Shusterman.

For over 3.5 million persons waiting in line to become permanent residents of the United States, the February 2011 State Department Visa Bulletin signals yet another month of frustration. The numbers seem to be frozen in time.

In the family categories, the worldwide visa numbers for the 1st, 2A, 2B and 3rd preferences all failed to advance a single day. For persons in the 4th preference category, the news was much, much worse: the waiting time increased from 9 to 11 years.

For persons in the already heavily backlogged family categories from the Philippines and Mexico, the advances were minimal, and for those born in the Dominican Republic, at least two of the family categories retrogressed by a number of years.

The situation was little better in the worldwide employment-based categories where the waits increased in the worldwide EB-3 category (professionals, skilled and unskilled workers). The waits increased in the China and India EB-2 and EB-3 categories and decreased slightly in the heavily backlogged Mexican EB-3 category.