The U.S. Department of State has released its June 2010 Visa Bulletin. One significant change for this month is that it now includes a country-specific priority date for visa applicants chargeable to the Dominican Republic.

The Visa Bulletin shows backlogs for each permanent residence category that is subject to annual numerical limits. By examining the cut off dates shown on the Visa Bulletin, it is possible to estimate (roughly) the extent of the backlog for a particular category.

If there are sufficient numbers in a particular category to satisfy all reported documentarily qualified demand, the category is considered “current”. Whenever the total of documentarily qualified applicants in a category exceeds the supply of numbers available for allotment for the particular month, the category is considered to be “oversubscribed” and a visa availability cut-off date is established. The cut-off date is the priority date of the first documentarily qualified applicant who could not be accommodated for a visa number.

According to the June 2010 Visa Bulletin, continued heavy applicant demand for family preference numbers has resulted in the oversubscription of the Dominican Republic chargeability for June, to hold issuances within the annual numerical limitation. The result has been the establishment of cut-off dates in the family second preference categories which are earlier than the Worldwide dates.

The June 2010 Visa Bulletin is available here.