Current PD & Visa Number Availability

[SadashivePethi]

Gurus,
A question for the community
How current PD dates in visa bulletin and visa number availability are related?
Does it mean if PD is current, USCIS has to process all I-485 cases for the current PD? Does visa number exhaust even if PD is current?

Please share your thoughts.

 

[max2k1]

OK - I'll try to explain .....

PD cutoff (or Current) is established based on an expected demand in the next month (remember the bulletin comes 15 days before).
Say there are 10,000 visas left and DOS expects demand to be only 8000 - then they would make the dates current hoping that the 8k estimate is correct.

If USCIS wrongly estimated the 8k and say they have 15k apps in reality, it would cause a problem once the first 10k are approved. The yearly limit is more or less fixed and it cannot be exceeded.

So as long as the estimates are accurate, we can say that PD current means numbers available for the month. But then again, I won't put any money on any estimates from USCIS -- they don't know their mouths from their asses .... so don't trust their estimates too much.