The new Visa Bulletin has been released. This one would normally be the bulletin controlling interviews in April, but of course we probably can assume that KCC will not schedule interviews in February because nothing has changed yet, from their perspective. The ban is still in place, for now, but actually I am encouraged because the numbers are showing a pretty good increase, so I think that actually reflects the changes we are about to see for DV2021. There are a few days left in February, so maybe KCC will give us a nice surprise – and they have been showing signs of a little more activity just recently.

So here are the VB numbers:

AFRICA: 22,000
Except:
Egypt: 13,000

ASIA: 9,000
Except:
Iran: 4,700
Nepal: 4,500

EUROPE: 12,000

NORTH AMERICA (BAHAMAS): 7

OCEANIA: 1100

SOUTH AMERICA and the CARIBBEAN: 1,400

To those new to looking at VBs, let me explain what the “except” XXX country means. Some countries have been called out as “exceptions” meaning that selectees chargeable to those two countries (regardless of where they will interview) are subject to a lower VB number for the month than the rest of the region. This is done to slow down processing for countries with a high number of selectees to spread out the workload over a longer time. Please read this linked article on how to read the visa bulletin.