Country-wide policy
Seven Per Cent: the Ceiling That Decides How Long You Wait
One provision shapes almost every permanent route into the United States for this corpus, and it is two paragraphs long. Paragraph (a)(1) forbids discrimination in issuing an immigrant visa because of race, sex, nationality, place of birth or place of residence. Paragraph (a)(2) then provides that no single foreign state may receive more than 7 per cent of the family-sponsored and employment-based immigrant visas available in a fiscal year. The second is written as an express exception to the first. The ceiling is per state of birth rather than per citizenship, and because demand from a few states is far above 7 per cent of the total, the practical effect is that people born in those states wait years or decades longer than people born elsewhere with identical qualifications and identical sponsors.
Topics it changes
At a glance
- Ceiling per state
- 7 per cent of family-sponsored and employment-based visas in a fiscal year
- Dependent areas
- 2 per cent
- What the ceiling follows
- Where you were born, not which passport you hold
- The non-discrimination rule
- Stated in the paragraph immediately before, and expressly subject to this one
- When the ceiling is lifted
- For the rest of a quarter in which visas would otherwise go unused
Section 1152(a)(3).
- Spouses and children of permanent residents
- Three quarters of the second-preference set-aside is outside the ceiling
Section 1152(a)(4)(A).
Why this belongs on a site about origin
Everything else recorded here about nationality is a rule about what you may do. This is a rule about how many of you there may be, and it is the only provision in the corpus where the destination's own statute says the answer depends on where you were born and then says so again, as an exception to its own prohibition on exactly that.
Birth, not citizenship
The ceiling applies to natives of a foreign state. A person born in one country who holds another country's passport is charged to the country of birth, not to the passport - which is the opposite of how every European rule in this corpus works, and the reason a change of nationality does not change the wait.
What the law says
«(1) Nondiscrimination (A) Except as specifically provided in paragraph (2) and in sections 1101(a)(27), 1151(b)(2)(A)(i), and 1153 of this title, no person shall receive any preference or priority or be discriminated against in the issuance of an immigrant visa because of the person's race, sex, nationality, place of birth, or place of residence.»The rule, and the words that subordinate it: "except as specifically provided in paragraph (2)". The statute states the principle and its own exception in consecutive paragraphs.
Read it at the sourceAbout this source
The Government Publishing Office's authenticated repository. The United States Code is published here edition by edition, one HTML file per section, at an address that names the edition year - and a link service resolves a title and section number to the current edition's file.
Standing: Maintains the text in force
Cannot be cited for: An edition is a snapshot: the 2024 edition states the law as of a date in 2024 and says nothing about amendments made since. The Code is itself a compilation of acts, and for titles not enacted into positive law the Statutes at Large govern where the two differ. Nothing here carries the regulations, which are in the Code of Federal Regulations, or the annual notices that fill in the numbers these sections leave open.
We re-read it every 90 days. More about this source
«Subject to paragraphs (3), (4), and (5), the total number of immigrant visas made available to natives of any single foreign state or dependent area under subsections (a) and (b) of section 1153 of this title in any fiscal year may not exceed 7 percent (in the case of a single foreign state) or 2 percent (in the case of a dependent area) of the total number of such visas made available under such subsections in that fiscal year.»The ceiling. It is expressed as a share of the annual total rather than as a number, so it tightens as demand concentrates.
Read it at the sourceAbout this source
The Government Publishing Office's authenticated repository. The United States Code is published here edition by edition, one HTML file per section, at an address that names the edition year - and a link service resolves a title and section number to the current edition's file.
Standing: Maintains the text in force
Cannot be cited for: An edition is a snapshot: the 2024 edition states the law as of a date in 2024 and says nothing about amendments made since. The Code is itself a compilation of acts, and for titles not enacted into positive law the Statutes at Large govern where the two differ. Nothing here carries the regulations, which are in the Code of Federal Regulations, or the annual notices that fill in the numbers these sections leave open.
We re-read it every 90 days. More about this source
«If because of the application of paragraph (2) with respect to one or more foreign states or dependent areas, the total number of visas available under both subsections (a) and (b) of section 1153 of this title for a calendar quarter exceeds the number of qualified immigrants who otherwise may be issued such a visa, paragraph (2) shall not apply to visas made available to such states or areas during the remainder of such calendar quarter.»The release valve: where the ceiling would leave visas unused in a quarter, it stops applying for the rest of that quarter.
Read it at the sourceAbout this source
The Government Publishing Office's authenticated repository. The United States Code is published here edition by edition, one HTML file per section, at an address that names the edition year - and a link service resolves a title and section number to the current edition's file.
Standing: Maintains the text in force
Cannot be cited for: An edition is a snapshot: the 2024 edition states the law as of a date in 2024 and says nothing about amendments made since. The Code is itself a compilation of acts, and for titles not enacted into positive law the Statutes at Large govern where the two differ. Nothing here carries the regulations, which are in the Code of Federal Regulations, or the annual notices that fill in the numbers these sections leave open.
We re-read it every 90 days. More about this source
Practical notes
The record states the ceiling. How long a particular queue actually is, is published monthly by the State Department in the Visa Bulletin, which is not read here.
The exceptions in paragraphs (3) to (5) are real and are quoted or named. They soften the ceiling; they do not remove it.