F1 vs F2A Priority Date: Someone please explain this

F1 is for over-21 unmarried sons and daughters of citizens, but F2A is for spouses and under-21 unmarried children of permanent residents. The F2A quota is more than 3 times larger than F1.

For an apples-to-apples comparison, look at F2B which is for over-21 unmarried children of permanent residents. It is 2 years behind F1.
 
I thought citizens would have a priority - since they are above F2A in the preference category. What's the point of preference category then?
 
Oh, you thought "first" preference means they would always be ahead of second, third, and fourth? Maybe that is what was originally intended, and F1 used to be ahead of the others in years past (for example: http://travel.state.gov/visa/frvi/bulletin/bulletin_1347.html). But there was no rule saying that all F1 must be ahead of F2 and the rest. They just allocated the quotas for each category based on what they thought would work, and then things happened from there.

But if you compare relatives of citizens and equivalent relatives of permanent residents, you will see that the relatives of citizens do have priority. Spouses and under-21 children of US citizens are considered "immediate relatives" and there is no quota limitation or priority date cutoff for them. Whereas spouses and under-21 children of permanent residents must wait over 4 years in the F2A category. Over-21 unmarried children of citizens are in F1, which is ahead of over-21 children of PRs in F2B.
 
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