The visa bulletin for July 2024 has been made public by the US Department of State. The U.S. Department of State’s July 2024 Visa Bulletin shows no change from the May 2024 Visa Bulletin. Forms I-485, Applications to Register Permanent Residence or Adjust Status, will still be accepted by United States Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) for all employment-based preference categories as shown in the Final Action Dates chart.

The visa bulletin details the immigrant numbers that will be available in July for the “Dates for Filing Applications” and “Final Action Dates,” which specify the times on which applicants for immigrant visas must submit the necessary supporting documentation to the National Visa Center.

The family-sponsored preference immigration cap for fiscal year 2024 is 226,000. There are at least 140,000 annual employment-based preference immigrants worldwide. Preference immigrants are subject to a per-country restriction equal to 7% of the total annual limits of 25,620 for family-sponsored and employment-based preference. The dependent area limit is set at 2%, which equals 7,320.

To find out when they can submit an adjustment of status (AOS) application to USCIS, individuals must consult the “Final Action Dates” charts. USCIS will post on its website the “Dates for Filing Visa Applications” in its place if it determines that there are more immigrant visas available for the fiscal year than there are known applicants for such visas.

Put another way, foreign nationals need to have a priority date that is earlier than the date listed under their country and preference category in order to apply for an AOS application.

The Visa Bulletin’s deadlines and USCIS’s validation of the applicable chart determine who is eligible to file a Form I-485 application on a monthly basis. Furthermore, the possibility of approval for a pending Form I-485 or immigrant visa application is determined by the Final Action Dates chart included in the relevant Visa Bulletin.

In the April 2024 Visa Bulletin, DOS stated that retrogression might occur and that there would be no forward movement in the deadlines for employment-based immigrant visa categories between May 1, 2024, and September 30, 2024.

When you are in the country, you can apply for lawful permanent resident status (often referred to as a Green Card) through the adjustment of status procedure. It is possible to obtain a Green Card without having to travel back to your place of origin in order to finish the visa application procedure.

While USCIS reports applicants seeking adjustment of status, consular personnel are required to report documentarily qualifying applications for numerically limited visas to the Department of State. To the greatest extent possible, the allocations were made according to the stated priority dates of the demands that were received by April 1st.

The first preference category (EB-1, Priority Workers) sees the most progress in this immigration bulletin. The deadline for EB-1 India will be February 1, 2022, an eleven-month extension. The deadline for China EB-1 will be November 1, 2022, two months earlier than previously.

There are both advancement and regression occurring in the third preference category (EB-3, Skilled Workers, Professionals, and Other Workers). The dates for EB-3 India will advance to September 22, 2013, one month early. The dates are set for September 1, 2020, for China. The dates will be advanced to December 1, 2021, more than eleven months ahead of schedule for the rest of the world.

The dates for the fifth and final priority category (EB-5, Investors) are the same as those listed in the Visa Bulletin from April 2024. The dates for India for the EB-5 Unreserved categories (C5, T5, I5, and R5) are still December 1, 2020. The dates are still December 15, 2015, for China. The dates are still valid for everyone else in the world. The dates will also stay valid for the EB-5 set-aside categories (Rural, High Unemployment, and Infrastructure).

Allocations in the charts below were made, to the extent possible, in chronological order of reported priority dates, for demand received by June 5th. If not all demand could be satisfied, the category or foreign state in which demand was excessive was deemed oversubscribed. The final action date for an oversubscribed category is the priority date of the first applicant who could not be reached within the numerical limits. If it becomes necessary during the monthly allocation process to retrogress a final action date, supplemental requests for numbers will be honored only if the priority date falls within the new final action date announced in this bulletin. If at any time an annual limit was reached, it would be necessary to immediately make the preference category “unavailable”, and no further requests for numbers would be honored.

DIVERSITY IMMIGRANT (DV) CATEGORY FOR THE MONTH OF JULY

Section 203(c) of the INA provides up to 55,000 immigrant visas each fiscal year to permit additional immigration opportunities for persons from countries with low admissions during the previous five years. No one country can receive more than seven percent of the available diversity visas in any one year.

The year of entitlement for all applicants registered for the DV-2024 program ends as of September 30, 2024. DV visas may not be issued to DV-2024 applicants after that date. Similarly, spouses and children accompanying or following to join DV-2024 principals are only entitled to derivative DV status until September 30, 2024. DV visa availability through the very end of FY-2024 cannot be taken for granted. Numbers could be exhausted prior to September 30.

For July, immigrant numbers in the DV category are available to qualified DV-2024 applicants chargeable to all regions/eligible countries as follows. When an allocation cut-off number is shown, visas are available only for applicants with DV regional lottery rank numbers BELOW the specified allocation cut-off number:

THE DIVERSITY (DV) IMMIGRANT CATEGORY RANK CUT-OFFS WHICH WILL APPLY IN AUGUST

For August, immigrant numbers in the DV category are available to qualified DV-2024 applicants chargeable to all regions/eligible countries as follows. When an allocation cut-off number is shown, visas are available only for applicants with DV regional lottery rank numbers BELOW the specified allocation cut-off number: