Immigration Lawyer Blog
Now that 2025 is in full swing, in this video, we will discuss our predictions for visa availability for employment-based and family-sponsored preference categories, based on historical patterns and statistical information from the past year.
If you are waiting for your priority date to become current on the Visa Bulletin and want to know when your immigrant visa might be issued, you won’t want to miss this video.
Overview
Each year, the availability of immigrant numbers for employment-based preference immigrants is calculated based on Section 201 of the Immigration and Nationality Act (INA).
For FY 2024, the annual numerical limit for family sponsored immigrant visas was 226,000. Of these visas, only about 170,000 visas were actually allocated and issued to family sponsored immigrants. Approximately 58,000 visas were left unused in fiscal year 2024 due to country specific backlogs and scheduling delays.
That leaves a substantial number of unused family visa numbers that can potentially be transferred to employment-based visas in fiscal year 2025.
It is important to note that for fiscal year 2024, the Department of State determined that the employment-based annual limit would be 160,791, due to unused family-sponsored visa numbers from fiscal year 2023 being added to the employment-based limit for fiscal year 2024.