Immigrant visa numbers/quota

[ramlaww]

Hi All,

I am sure, this topic would have been discussed a lot. I couldn't however search or find details. Apologies if this is a redundant post/question.

I am trying to get some understanding on the immigrant visa numbers/quota available per country, per visa type.

Many posts in the internet mention that, among 1,40,000 employment based visas available, 28.6% is for EB1, EB2, EB3 each, and about 7% for EB4 and EB5 each. There is also a 7% per country cap.

Putting these numbers to-gather, this i what we get: Max EB1, EB2, EB3 visas available per country is 7% of 28.6% of 140000. And that comes to approximately, 2800 EB1s, 2800 EB2s, and 2800 EB3s per country.

Unused EB4 & EB5 visas can be used by EB1; and unused EB1 can be used by EB2 and so on.

So, at the maximum, a country cannot have more than 4100 visas of EB1, EB2 and EB3 each.

But, the statistics published by https://travel.state.gov indicates that, for 2015 alone, more than 12000 EB1, 7000 EB2 and 7000 EB3 has been issued for Indian applicants. And more than 6000, 4000 and 2000 visas respectively for EB1, EB2 and, EB3 has been issued for China.

Can someone help me bridge the gap in understanding of the rules, and the real/approval numbers.

Thanks for your time.