-1- February 2025
United States Department of State
Bureau of Consular Affairs
VISA BULLETIN
Number 98 Volume X Washington, D.C.
IMMIGRANT NUMBERS FOR FEBRUARY 2025
A. STATUTORY NUMBERS FOR PREFERENCE IMMIGRANT VISAS
This bulletin summarizes the availability of immigrant numbers during February for
“Final Action Dates” and “Dates for Filing Applications,” indicating when immigrant
visa applicants should be notified to assemble and submit required documentation to
the National Visa Center.
Unless otherwise indicated on the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS)
website at www.uscis.gov/visabulletininfo, individuals seeking to file applications
for adjustment of status with USCIS must use the “Final Action Dates” charts below for
determining when they can file such applications. When USCIS determines that there are
more immigrant visas available for the fiscal year than there are known applicants for
such visas, USCIS will state on its website that applicants may instead use the “Dates
for Filing Visa Applications” charts in this Bulletin.
1. Procedures for determining dates. Consular officers are required to report to the
Department of State documentarily qualified applicants for numerically limited visas;
USCIS reports applicants for adjustment of status. Allocations in the charts below
were made, to the extent possible, in chronological order of reported priority dates,
for demand received by January 6th. If all reported demand could not 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 were reached, it would be necessary to immediately make the preference category
“unavailable”, and no further requests for numbers would be honored.
2. The fiscal year 2025 limit for family-sponsored preference immigrants determined in
accordance with Section 201 of the Immigration and Nationality Act (INA) is
226,000. The worldwide level for annual employment-based preference immigrants is at
least 140,000. Section 202 prescribes that the per-country limit for preference
immigrants is set at 7% of the total annual family-sponsored and employment-based
preference limits, i.e., 25,620. The dependent area limit is set at 2%, or 7,320.
3. INA Section 203(e) provides that family-sponsored and employment-based preference
visas be issued to eligible immigrants in the order in which a petition on behalf of
each has been filed. Section 203(d) provides that spouses and children of
preference immigrants are entitled to the same status, and the same order of
consideration, if accompanying or following to join the principal. The visa
prorating provisions of Section 202(e) apply to allocations for a foreign state or
dependent area when visa issuances will exceed the per-country limit. These
provisions apply at present to the following oversubscribed chargeability areas:
CHINA-mainland born, INDIA, MEXICO, and PHILIPPINES.
