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Chargeability: how to determine which country’s quota you will be counted under for green card purposes.

Sat, 12/16/2006 - 3:52pm — RSA
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“Chargeability” refers to the rules which are used to determine under which country you will be counted for green card purposes.There are certain categories under which you can obtain a “green card” (i.e., U.S. Permanent Residency) which do not have any limit on the number of green cards that are issued each year.  For example, “immediate relatives” of U.S. Citizens (i.e., spouses of U.S. citizens, parents of U.S. citizens, and unmarried children under 21 years of age) are not subject to numerical quotas. 

However, most categories under which you can obtain a “green card” are only allocated a limited number of immigrant visas (“green cards”) each year, and there are country limits imposed as well (in order to prevent having all of the year’s green cards going to a few countries).  For these types of categories, it is often important to determine under which country you will be counted because it could make a big difference in terms of how long you will have to wait for a green card. 

Normally, you are counted under the country in which you were born, subject to certain exceptions.  The State Department explains these rules in general as follows:

Ordinarily an immigrant is chargeable for visa purposes to the numerical limitation for the foreign state or dependent area in which the immigrant's place of birth is located. Exceptions are provided for a child (unmarried and under 21 years of age) or spouse accompanying or following to join a principal to prevent the separation of family members, as well as for an applicant born in the U.S. or in a foreign state of which neither parent was a native or resident. Alternate chargeability is desirable when the visa cut-off date for the foreign state of a parent or spouse is more advantageous than that of the applicant's foreign state.
See Visa Bulletin for JULY 2000. Attached hereto is a PDF file of a State Department document which details the rules of chargeability.
AttachmentSize
9FAM42.12.pdf68.89 KB
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