The new VB has just been released, and it’s frustrating news for the Nepal and Egypt.

Egypt has not moved at all, and Nepal has moved just a few hundred numbers. This is again, shameful behavior.

EU was almost current before

So , this VB will be a horrible shock for some.

 

 

Also, in this VB, the government added a not to talk about retrogression. I have discussed this before so some of you will understand what it means, but basically they explain in the VB that they set the VB to current to allow as many cases to be scheduled as possible, but they are saying they may LOWER the number in future VBs. This has happened before, but it is rare. To see them actually saying it could happen is a first for me. So – I think it is likely they will do that.

If they do, let me make something clear. It means no numbers above that new limit could be scheduled from that point on BUT interviews already scheduled would be honored and those cases can be issued.

 

Those that are current, and have forms processed early enough, can normally expect their 2NL in the next 2 to 3 weeks from now. The new no documents procedure is still a little unknown, so we will have to wait and see exactly how that goes.  This is supposed to be the same every month. VB from the 8th to the 15th of each month, and 2NLs in the second half of the month. For the last few months there have been 2NLs in daily batches, but we seem to be moving to a more normal procedure where almost all the 2NLs are sent before the end of the month, with just a hadful being sent earlier this month. I would normally expect all the interview 2NLs to have all been sent by the end of this month, but we can see recently they are exceeding that to try and get as many interviews in as possible. They can be sent right up until the last day of the month, and even the first few days of the following month during exceptional times.

To those new to looking at VBs, let me explain what the “except” XXX country means – and you can also read this post on how to read the visa bulletin.

Processing is spread out over the full year. You can see the progress of the two previous years in this post about basic questions.  However, some countries have a high number of selectees and those selectees are concentrated in the lower case numbers. For various reasons, mainly to do with embassy capacity, KCC slow down certain countries as compared to the region. So – in Africa, any case with a case number shown as under the new number can be interviewed but for cases from Egypt, that number is lower. That isn’t a big problem, it just “slows down” those countries a little more than the rest of the region. Since selectees from those countries all have lower case numbers, this slowing down does not present any risk. It does not (at this point) mean they won’t allow all selectees an interview from those countries.

To understand why some countries get lower case numbers, read this article about the lottery draw process.