Department of State Provides Visa Priority Date Predictions in New Monthly Live Chat Series

On March 12, 2021, The Department of State announced that Charlie Oppenheim, Chief of the Visa Control and Reporting Division at the U.S. Department of State (DOS), will host a monthly live chat where he will share his predictions on the progression and regression of priority dates on the Visa Bulletin. Each month, the Department of State publishes the Visa Bulletin which summarizes the availability of immigrant numbers available for individuals in the employment based, family based, and diversity lottery categories.  The bulletin indicates when applicants in those categories are eligible to apply for a visa based on their priority date. Given the numerical limits in place for these visas, applicants often wait years for their priority date to be current and the wait times vary depending on their category and country of birth.  On March 17, 2021, DOS posted the first video in this new series entitled, “Chats with Charlie.” Mr. Oppenheim discussed his predictions for the April 2021 Visa Bulletin, which included his prediction that the employment-based green card limit will rise to at least 275,000 in fiscal year 2022.

The videos will be posted on the Department of State YouTube Channel (https://www.youtube.com/user/TravelGov) each month.  Questions can be emailed to VisaBulletin@state.gov ahead of the event with “Chat with Charlie Question” in the subject line.  Questions will also be taken via the YouTube Live Chat and will be answered in real-time.  The event is intended to address issues of general interest related to the content of the Visa Bulletin, and no policy, case, or post specific questions will be accepted.

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