It should be noted that not all registered cases are considered when counting the waiting list total but only begin to be included in the wait list totals unless and until a visa is issued. To further prevent an inflation of numbers, counselor procedures require that visas which will no longer see any further action be removed from the list. These include visas where the applicant does not respond in a timely manner to the consular Instruction Package; such visas are considered “inactive.”
The 17 countries shown above are the countries where at least 60,000 people are on the immigrant waiting list. The INA 202 sets a per-country limit on the amount of immigrant visas that will be issued, from any of the above categories-excluding visas for immediate relatives, which is unlimited. 26,600 is the 2013 limit per-country