AMERICA still rolls the red, white (sorry, no blue) carpet to unlimited number of visitors. After all, international visitors generated $217.4 billion in revenues and supported almost 18 million jobs in the US in 2019, a legacy that flourished until the second Trump administration, the World Travel and Tourism reported (May 14, 2025).
That legacy is under threat.
The World Travel and Tourism Council (WTTC), the global body representing the travel and tourism private sector, announced in its Economic Impact Research “that the US is on track to lose a staggering $12.5 billion in international visitor spending this year... the only country among 184 economies analyzed by WTTC and Oxford Economics to see international visitor spending decline in 2025.”
As we reported in last week’s column, most of the thousands of visa applicants allowed inside the US Embassy in Manila are tourist visa applicants.
Legal immigrants must deal with quotas and the long, tortuous years of waiting. There at the hallowed embassy grounds, their immigrant journey either starts or ends. Hope grapples with fear of the unknown: Will their immigrant journey that started with a petition end with a refusal?
Interview schedules at consular posts worldwide follow the rules in place for all immigrant visa applicants: immediate relatives of US citizens, those in the family-preference and the employment-based preference categories.
How many immigrant visas are allocated yearly?
Specific sections of the Immigration and Nationality Act (INA) set the annual numerical limits (ANLs) for family-sponsored: 480,000; family-based (part of the 480,000) is 226,000; the per-country limit for preference immigrants is 25,620 (7 percent of the total annual family-sponsored and employment-based preference limit); and the dependent area at 7,320.
While there is a set limit to the yearly allocation, the actual visa numbers issued vary every month, leading to fluctuating totals of actual visas issued at year’s end.
ANLs are mandated, but the actual numbers depend on various estimates, including past number use, future number use and return rates, and estimates of Citizenship and Immigration Service demand based on cut-off date movements.
Yearly quota depends on the monthly allocation
At the beginning of each month, the Visa Office (VO) receives a report from each consular post listing totals of documentarily qualified immigrant visa applicants in categories subject to quota.
Consular estimates also consider applicants in the US who are eligible for permanent residency through the adjustment of status process since immigrant hopefuls — whether facing a USCIS interviewer in a district office or a US consul inside an embassy cubicle — compete for a spot in the preference and annual limits.
“Cases are grouped by foreign state chargeability/preference/priority date. No names are reported. Documentarily qualified demand is tabulated. VO subdivides the annual preference and foreign state limitations specified by the INA into monthly allotments.”
“The totals of documentarily qualified applicants reported to VO are compared each month with the numbers available for the next regular allotment,” the total of which must not exceed the yearly legislated numerical limit (YLNL).
For example, the YLNL for the second preference category is 114,200.
This total is further subdivided into 87,934 (77 percent) for the F2A category and 65,950 for the FX (or 75 percent of 87,934). The FX classification is exempt from the 25,620 per-country limit, but when added to the overall family-sponsored quota, the fluctuating F2A total must not be over 226,000.
Here, the Rudyard Kipling principle rules: “Never shall the twain of estimate and actual numbers meet.”
The reason for the disconnect between visa targets and results lies in how the set variables in the State Department’s formula — hatched in bureaucratic halls implemented at the consular level. Laws are enshrined in the pages of the Foreign Affairs Manual, but implementation changes with the administration wielding the Damocles sword.
Inside the embassy cubicle, the consular officer’s decision is unchallenged.
Difference between family- sponsored and family- preference categories
Immediate relatives (IRs) of US citizens compete with the family-preference applicants within the 480,000 family-sponsored total until only 226,000 remain. Since IRs are not subject to quota, the actual number of immigrants admitted into the US (combined total of immigrant visa applicants outside the US and adjustment of status beneficiaries in the US) varies every year.
The difference is that IRs get their visa interviews faster since they do not have to wait for priority dates to be current, while applicants for the family-preference categories (FPCs) must compete not only for the 480,000 caboodle but also with what remains in the 226,000 leftovers.
DQ applicants in the FPCs must wait for their priority dates to be current to be part of the visa queue. DQ applicants must monitor the Visa Bulletin to check when they can start visa processing with NVC.
IRs need not.
Come war or pandemic, IRs are prioritized (and are not boxed in the annual quota square), followed by skilled workers in the employment-based categories.
The 65,950, or 75 percent of 87,934, exempt from the 25,620 per-country limit, is available to all FX applicants worldwide, not just to Philippine applicants who must compete for the 65,950 total.
The State Department’s announcement of yearly immigrant visa allocation numbers does not — and cannot — identify which applicant from what country gets an interview notice faster since scheduling is based on 1) the earliest priority date; and 2) who becomes documentarily qualified first.
Less work for employment -based applicants
For those sponsored as immigrants by US employers, the wait is less unnerving, especially for Filipino professionals and skilled workers.
An F2A beneficiary who aged out (turned 21) faces a 9-to-11-year wait for the priority date to be current, become DQ, and wait for the consular interview. Employment-based beneficiaries are spared this bench-warming torture.
If the parents (who are already in the US as green card holders or US citizens) could get an employer to sponsor him/her under an EB category, the wait would be cut down to 1 to 4 years.
Filipino skilled workers and professionals who obtain a master’s degree in the US would qualify under the EB2 category and get a green card even faster.
When to expect your interview date
As of Nov. 1, 2023, the State Department reported 228,294 immigrant visa applicants from the Philippines waiting for their interview schedule. Meanwhile, at the beginning of the visa spectrum the USCIS approves and sends an average of 3,000 petitions daily to NVC, adding to the millions of visa applicants expecting interview schedules at the US Embassy.
With the huge backlog and years of waiting, only a few thousand get the actual interview notice every month despite being considered documentarily qualified (DQ) and priority dates current in the Visa Bulletin.
Tourist visa interviews, on the other hand, are much faster to secure. Simply complete the DS 160 Nonimmigrant Visa Application form, pay the fees at RCBC, create your profile at the specific US Embassy website, then get the earliest appointment date.
Those with pending immigrant visa petitions are still welcome to apply for visitor visas. The embassy will not refuse the $185 fee. Be aware that as a potential permanent resident, the consul will decide whether you are a permanent resident masquerading as a temporary visa applicant.
Be ready to justify your preference.