A lot of Middle Easterners think that they are lower priorities in visa priority to immigrate to the USA. The truth is that they are not. First, the priority system does not work based on nationality. Second, there are only four nations in which visas take longer. Those countries are: China, India, Mexico, and Philippines.

The low priority for these countries is not any discrimination against those nations, but due to their large population there is much more demand from those countries causing an immigrant visa or an employment visa to take longer than people from the rest of the world.

Immigrant visas can be divided into two major categories: Family based visas and Employment based visas. Family based visas are divided into five categories:

Immediate Relatives (IR) of a US Citizen.  IRs are spouses, children under 21years of age and unmarried, and father and mother. For these people visas are always available because there is no cap or quota. If the US Citizen files a petition for his/her IR, the entire process shall go fast and the IR should be able to have his/her visa and travel to US in less than one year.

• First Category. Unmarried sons and daughters of a US Citizen that are 21 years of age or older. At the current time (January 2010) it usually takes about 5 years for these people; except if they are from Mexico or Philippines it would take over 10 years.
• Second Category – A. Spouse and children (under 21) of a Permanent Resident (Green Card holder). This is currently taking about four years for all countries.
• Second Category – B. Unmarried sons and daughter of a Permanent Resident (Green Card holder), 21 or older. This is currently taking over 8 years for all countries, except for Mexico and Philippines that it may take over 12 years.
• Third Category. Married sons and daughters of a US Citizen. This is currently taking 9 years for all countries, except for Mexico and Philippines that it is taking over 16 years.
• Fourth Category. Brothers and sisters of a US Citizen. This is currently taking over 11 years, except for Mexico and Philippines that it is taking over 20 years.

Again, these time frames are based on availability of visa in each of those categories as of January 2010. Sometimes the availability of visa changes because if some visas in one category are not used they would be allocated to a lower category and that number increases for that particular year. Thus, there is a chance that some of these timeframes go faster in a particular year or in a particular category. There is also a possibility that some new regulation or legislation passes in the Congress that changes the number of available visas and make it go faster.

However, it should now be clearer that visa availability and the speed of the process are not a discriminating process against Middle Easterners. In fact, an argument can be made that someone from Iran has the same chance and speed of the process, in the above categories, as someone from UK. The employment based visas have a similar category, and it is not a system against any nationality either.

The only visas that may have felt, by some foreign nationals, as some sort of discrimination against them are probably visiting visas and student visas. However, there are no discriminating measures in those visas either. The law has simply given “discretion,” in these two areas, to a US Consulate officer to extend or deny a visa to a foreign national. In this discretion, a US Consulate officer has to evaluate the possibility and intention of a foreign national in terms of staying in the USA beyond a visit, after completing a study, or just illegally after his/her visa expires. Many people, perhaps more from the Middle East, do not know how best to show evidence and demonstrate that they do not have any intention to stay in the USA permanently and thus their application for a visiting or student visa receives denial and they mistakenly think there might have been a discrimination against their nationality.

For example, a mother and father apply to get a visiting visa to come to USA to visit their son that is now a US Citizen or a Permanent Resident (Green Card holder). These parents do not have any other children. Most probably, their application for visiting visa will be denied because there is large probability that they would stay in the USA; they do not have a strong tie with their home country. Their only child is in USA permanently and they would not have any reason to go back to their home country. But if the same parents show that they have a solid job in their home country and are just taking a vacation to see their son, the possibility of receiving a visiting visa is much higher because the job is a tie with their home country.