USCIS data indicated that the Visa Office in DOS unnecessarily held visa numbers in the first 2 quarters against Employment-based (EB) petitioners, while in the same time assigned greater than 27% of annual quota for family-based petitioners.
EB petitioners received 17% and 15% of annual quota in Quarter 1 and 2 of 2011. Given the woeful backlog that will take many years to clear, such an overly conservative allocation by the Visa Office materially delayed EB petitioners' access to "otherwise unused" visa numbers.
INA201 defines the ceiling for the first three quarters as 27% of the annual 140,000 quota. We urge the Department of State quarterly assign a minimum of 25% of the annual visa quota to EB petitioners. It'll make Visa Bulletin move faster forward in the first three quarters.