Last part of a seriesCharting appointment dates'On Nov. 20, 2014, the Secretary of Homeland Security directed USCIS to work with DOS to:– Ensure that all immigrant visas authorized by Congress are issued to eligible individuals when there is sufficient demand for such visas and– Improve the Visa Bulletin system for determining when immigrant visas are available to applicants during the fiscal year.' (USCIS website)In July 2015, a two-chart Visa Bulletin was initiated 'to better estimate immigrant visa availability and provide needed predictability to nonimmigrant workers (NIWs) seeking permanent residency.' These NIWs are those currently in the US whose employers have filed an immigrant visa petition for them.The two charts of the monthly Visa Bulletin are:– Chart A - Application Final Action Dates (dates when visas may finally be issued, normally when a priority date is already current, and the beneficiary has been considered documentarily qualified, or DQ; and– Chart B - Dates for Filing Applications (earliest dates when applicants may be able to apply).For immigrant visa applicants whose priority dates are not yet current but are approaching currency, Chart B signals to the beneficiary that he/she may start visa processing, but only upon receipt of the case creation letter (which replaced the packet visa instructions)And now, the State Department has two Visa Bulletins: one for the current month and the other as an upcoming bulletin.Beneficiaries in US get preferential treatmentWhether a beneficiary of a family-based petition or employment-sponsored immigrant visa petition, those in the US get to use Chart B — and be able to apply for employment authorization, especially NIWs waiting for their priority date to be current.The priority date of an employment-based immigrant visa applicant is the date when the permanent labor certification was filed, not when the petition was received at a USCIS office. That in itself gives NIWs a distinct advantage over overseas applicants who must wait for their USCIS filing priority dates to be current before getting to the US to work and reside legally.Beneficiaries pursuing their immigrant visa at consulates overseas must wait for interview notices despite having completed documentation or priority dates already current because of the huge backlog created when Covid-19 struck, and admission of legal immigrants was banned by presidential decree in 2020-2022.In November 2020, the State Department reported that there were 3,978,487 beneficiaries waiting for their immigrant visas.Then, in April 2021, the department released the first figures of those already documentarily qualified but are on 'standby' because embassies were ordered to close and/or cancel visa appointments for health and security reasons.The initial total of DQ with NVC was 494,289. Only 18,979 were scheduled for appointments due to embassies' shortage of facilities and staff combined with lockdown procedures due to Covid-19 quarantine protocols.This month, the number of IV applicants whose cases are documentarily complete at NVC and ready for interview worldwide as of September 30 was 413,264.Although 50,022 were scheduled for interview, the total still has not risen to the 2019 level when 'on average, 60,866 applicants were ready for scheduling of an interview each month.'Add the number of DQ applicants who were not scheduled for an interview every month, and you have the answer to why, up to now, hundreds of thousands of immigrant visa applicants — both those whose priority dates are current and those already DQ but are still waiting for an immigrant visa to be available (when their priority dates become current as shown on Chart A of the Visa Bulletin) are on standby mode — for 2 to 3 years.With the backlog of DQ applicants with NVC still at more than 400,000, these beneficiaries may just literally fall in line while waiting.Falling in line may come should the petitioner or principal applicant pass away, or the principal applicant changes category and becomes ineligible for the previous visa classification, generating more waiting time.Instead of being eligible to play the immigrant visa game, DQs who fall in line while waiting becomes subject to the original meaning of DQ — disqualified.