The US Department of State has released the visa bulletin for May 2024. The visa bulletin describes the availability of immigrant numbers in May for ‘Final Action Dates’ and ‘Dates for Filing Applications,’ which indicate when immigrant visa applicants should submit relevant documentary evidence to the National Visa Center.

The fiscal year 2024 maximum for family-sponsored preference immigrants is 226,000. The global total for annual employment-based preference immigrants is at least 140,000. The per-country restriction for preference immigrants is set at 7% of the overall annual family-sponsored and employment-based preference limits, which totals 25,620. The dependent area limit is set at 2%, which equals 7,320.

Individuals wanting to file adjustment of status (AOS) applications with USCIS must refer to the “Final Action Dates” charts to determine when they can do so. When USCIS judges that there are more immigrant visas available for the fiscal year than there are known applicants for such visas, it will publish on its website that applicants should instead use the “Dates for Filing Visa Applications”.

In other words, in order to apply for an AOS application, foreign nationals must have a priority date that is earlier than the date specified under their preference category and country.

Adjustment of status is the process that you can use to apply for lawful permanent resident status (also known as applying for a Green Card) when you are present in the United States. This means that you may get a Green Card without having to return to your home country to complete visa processing.

Consular officers must report documentarily qualified applications for numerically limited visas to the Department of State, whereas USCIS reports applicants seeking adjustment of status. The allocations were made, to the greatest degree practicable, in chronological sequence of reported priority dates for demand received by April 1.

The May 2024 visa bulletin shows a lack of movement in most employment-based categories, as projected by the State Department in the April 2024 visa bulletin.

The dates for the first preference category (EB-1, Priority Workers) are unchanged from the visa bulletin issued in April 2024. For candidates from the rest of the world, excluding India and China, the dates will stay current, allowing them to apply for an immigrant visa or AOS straight away. The EB-1 India program will continue till March 1, 2021. For China, the dates will remain September 1, 2022.

In the second preference category (EB-2, Members of the Professions Holding Advanced Degrees, or Persons of Exceptional Ability category), for India EB-2, the cutoff dates will remain at April 15, 2012. For China, the dates will stay at February 1, 2020. For the rest of the world, the date remains January 15, 2023.

In the third preference category (EB-3, Skilled Workers, Professionals, and Other Workers), the dates for China remain unchanged from the January 2024 visa bulletin on September 1, 2020. For India, the dates remain the same at August 15, 2012. For the rest of the world, the dates also remain at November 22, 2022.

The dates for the fifth and final priority category (EB-5, Investors) remain the same as in the April 2024 visa bulletin. For the EB-5 Unreserved categories (C5, T5, I5, and R5), the dates for India remain December 1, 2020. For China, the date remains December 15, 2015. For the rest of the world, the dates remain valid. Dates for the EB-5 set-aside categories (Rural, High Unemployment, and Infrastructure) remain current.