“Second Preference” Green Card Visa Numbers Temporarily Limited for Employees of all Countries

We recently wrote about the changes to the visa bulletin at the start of the new fiscal year.  The prior update mainly affected the visa numbers available in the EB-2 visa category for Indian-born applicants. Now, as we suspected, visa numbers are limited in the EB-2 category for citizens of all countries.Until recently, the EB-2 worldwide category has been “current.” This means that applicants born outside of China, India, Mexico, or the Philippines with any priority date under the EB-2 category had a visa number available for a green card. However, the government has received increased demand for the EB-2 category in recent months.  As a result, in December 2022, the government announced that there are currently no more visa numbers available in the EB-2 category.  This change limits the number of people eligible to apply for a green card. Fortunately, so far the wait for a visa number does not severely limit eligibility. We will continue to monitor visa number availability for our clients and reach out to those who might be affected by the changes.