Employment Third Preference, ‘Other Worker’ Categories Unavailable

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The Department of State’s Visa Bulletin for May 2009 states that the employment third preference and third preference “Other Workers” categories have become “Unavailable.” The Department explained that the cut-off dates for those categories were held and then retrogressed in an effort to bring demand within the average monthly usage targets and the overall annual numerical limits. Despite these efforts, the amount of demand for adjustment of status cases with priority dates that were significantly earlier than the established cut-off dates remained extremely high. As a result, these annual limits have been reached and both categories have become unavailable.

Visa availability in these categories will resume in October, the first month of the new fiscal year. The Visa Bulletin for May 2009 is available.