H1B Visa Lawyer Blog
The American Immigration Lawyers Association (AILA) Department of State Liaison Committee has posted that the U.S. Department of State (DOS) informed them that the Mexican F2A* visa preference category is expected to retrogress in the spring of FY2014. Visa retrogression means that the cut-off dates that govern visa availability moves backwards in time and are not available. They also warned that if the return rate for that visa category decreases anymore, the retrogression may come sooner than spring of FY2014. The return rate in this case means Visas numbers not used and returned for availability, so if the return rate decreases – there are fewer Visas available. DOS also anticipates that the F2A worldwide visa preference category will retrogress by the last quarter of FY2014. DOS will start including visa retrogression predictions in future visa bulletins.
*(F2A) Spouses and Children of Permanent Residents
Source of Information:
AILA InfoNet Doc. No. 13121951 (12/19/13):
DOS Alert: Visa Office Update on F2A Priority Dates