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How to read the Visa Bulletin and priority dates

The Department of State's monthly Visa Bulletin lists cut-off dates by preference category and country of chargeability. A visa is available when your priority date is earlier than the cut-off date, or the bulletin shows 'C'. Immediate relatives of US citizens are not subject to the queue. This page explains how to read the bulletin; it does not quote current dates or predict movement.

Searches such as "visa bulletin October 2026" and "visa bulletin November 2026" are common, and so are searches for predictions. This page does neither. The bulletin is published by the Department of State on a page that changes every month, and a cut-off date reproduced here would be out of date as soon as the next bulletin appears. The bulletin is at travel.state.gov, under Visa Bulletin. The page you want is the current month's.

What this page does do is explain how the bulletin works, from the statute, the regulations and USCIS's own description, so that the chart makes sense when you open it: what a priority date is, which chart answers which question, what the letters "C" and "U" mean, why dates sometimes go backwards, and how the per-country limits shape the waits. It describes mechanics. It does not say whether any person's priority date is current, how long a wait will be, or what to file and when. Those depend on documents and facts that an attorney or DOJ-accredited representative can read.

The text quoted below from USCIS comes from its "Visa Availability and Priority Dates" page, which describes the Department of State's process in USCIS's words. Its content about the monthly bulletin can change, so treat the USCIS page and the bulletin itself as the authority.

Who is in the queue and who is not

The bulletin only matters for people whose category has a limit. The immigration statute sets worldwide levels for family-sponsored and employment-based immigrants, and USCIS summarizes them: "In general, family-sponsored preference visas are limited to 226,000 visas per year, and employment-based preference visas are limited to 140,000 visas per year. (By statute, these annual visa limits may be exceeded when certain immigrant visas from the previous fiscal year's allocation were not fully used.)"

Immediate relatives are outside those limits. 8 U.S.C. 1151(b) lists "Aliens not subject to direct numerical limitations", including "Immediate relatives": "the children, spouses, and parents of a citizen of the United States, except that, in the case of parents, such citizens shall be at least 21 years of age." USCIS puts it this way: "Immigrant visas for immediate relatives of U.S. citizens are unlimited, so they are always available." Immediate relatives therefore do not wait on a cut-off date, although they still have to go through the petition and interview steps.

Everyone else in a family or employment preference category is in a queue. The family categories in 8 U.S.C. 1153(a), with the base numbers the statute sets, are: - first preference: unmarried sons and daughters of citizens, up to 23,400; - second preference: spouses, children and unmarried sons and daughters of permanent residents, up to 114,200, with "not less than 77 percent" going to spouses and children (the "A" group); - third preference: married sons and daughters of citizens, up to 23,400; - fourth preference: brothers and sisters of citizens (the citizen must be at least 21), up to 65,000.

The statute adds unused numbers from higher categories ("plus any visas not required for the class specified"). USCIS's own page gives the example label "F1" for the first family category. The bulletin uses short labels for the categories.

Employment-based visas run through the five preferences in 8 U.S.C. 1153(b), for example priority workers at 28.6 percent of the worldwide level. USCIS refers to "a fifth preference investor" and "a fourth preference special immigrant" in its description of priority dates.

The priority date: where it comes from

A priority date is the date that fixes a place in line. 8 CFR 245.1(g)(2) says: "The priority date of an applicant who is seeking the allotment of an immigrant visa number under one of the preference classes ... by virtue of a valid visa petition approved in his or her behalf shall be fixed by the date on which such approved petition was filed."

USCIS gives the practical version. For family cases: "For family-sponsored immigrants, the priority date is the date that the Form I-130, Petition for Alien Relative, or in certain instances the Form I-360 ... is properly filed with USCIS." For employment cases it depends on the category: - if a labor certification is required, the date the Department of Labor accepts the labor certification application for processing, and the petitioner "must file Form I-140 ... with USCIS within 180 days of the DOL approval date on the labor certification or else the labor certification is no longer valid"; - if none is required, the date USCIS accepts the Form I-140; - for a fourth preference special immigrant, the date USCIS accepts the Form I-360; - for a fifth preference investor, the date USCIS accepts the investor petition.

Where is it written down? USCIS says: "If you are a prospective immigrant, you can find your priority date on Form I-797, Notice of Action, for the petition filed on your behalf."

Because the priority date is the date the petition was properly filed, a rejected filing does not create one. 8 CFR 103.2(a)(7)(ii) says a rejected benefit request "will not retain a filing date".

Country of chargeability and the per-country limit

The bulletin has a column for each of several countries and a column for all other countries. That is because visas are charged to a country, "usually the country of birth", in USCIS's words, and because the statute limits how many preference visas one country can use. 8 U.S.C. 1152(a)(2) says that "the total number of immigrant visas made available to natives of any single foreign state or dependent area under subsections (a) and (b) of section 1153 of this title in any fiscal year may not exceed 7 percent (in the case of a single foreign state) or 2 percent (in the case of a dependent area) of the total number of such visas made available under such subsections in that fiscal year." The same section has exceptions that allow some numbers beyond that.

Two consequences follow from the way the rules are written: - the same preference category can have different cut-off dates for different countries, which is why one chart has several columns; - USCIS describes the mechanism: "When the demand is higher than the supply of visas for a given year in any given category or country, a visa queue (a waiting list or backlog) forms."

Chargeability follows rules that are not always the same as nationality, and the rules for spouses and children who derive status add more. Which country applies to a given person is a question for the attorney.

The two charts: Final Action Dates and Dates for Filing

Each bulletin contains two charts for the family and employment categories. USCIS describes them: the "Application Final Action Dates chart (consistent with previous Visa Bulletins)" and the "Dates for Filing Applications chart indicating when immigrant visa applicants should be notified to assemble and submit required documentation to the National Visa Center."

They answer different questions: - Final Action Dates show when a visa can be approved. A preference visa number can be allocated for an applicant whose priority date is earlier than the date shown. - Dates for Filing show when applicants can start assembling documents, and, in some months, when USCIS lets adjustment applicants file.

Which chart a person in the United States uses to file the Form I-485 is not their choice. USCIS says: "When we determine there are more immigrant visas available for the fiscal year than there are known applicants, you may use the Dates for Filing Applications chart to determine when to file an adjustment of status application with USCIS. Otherwise, you must use the Application Final Action Dates chart." And: "Unless otherwise indicated on our Adjustment of Status Filing Charts for Visa Bulletin webpage, you must use the 'Application Final Action Dates' for determining when you can file a Form I-485 with USCIS."

So the USCIS "Adjustment of Status Filing Charts for Visa Bulletin" page says, month by month, which chart applies. The regulation behind it is 8 CFR 245.1(g)(1): "An alien is ineligible for the benefits of section 245 of the Act unless an immigrant visa is immediately available to him or her at the time the application is filed. If the applicant is a preference alien, the current Department of State Bureau of Consular Affairs Visa Bulletin will be consulted to determine whether an immigrant visa is immediately available."

For someone abroad, the Department of State is the decision-maker. The rule 22 CFR 42.83(a) adds a clock: a registration "shall be terminated if, within one year after transmission of a notification of the availability of an immigrant visa, the applicant fails to apply for an immigrant visa."

How to read a row: dates, 'C' and 'U'

A cell in the chart is one of three things.

A date. The format in the bulletin is day, month abbreviation, two-digit year. USCIS gives an example: "if the Visa Bulletin shows a date of 15DEC07 for China in the family preference category (F1), visas are currently available for immigrants who have a priority date earlier than Dec. 15, 2007." That example is USCIS's illustration, not a current date. The rule: "A visa is available to you when your priority date is earlier than the cut-off date shown for your preference category and country of chargeability in the applicable chart".

"C". USCIS: "Sometimes the demand for immigrant visas is less than the supply in a particular category and country of chargeability. In this situation, the Visa Bulletin shows that category as 'C,' meaning that immigrant visas are currently (immediately) available to all qualified adjustment of status applicants and overseas immigrant visa applicants in that particular preference category and country of chargeability."

"U". "If the Visa Bulletin shows 'U' in a category, this means that immigrant visas are temporarily unavailable to all applicants in that particular preference category and/or country of chargeability."

A worked example with invented dates, to show the comparison and nothing more. Suppose a cell reads 01JAN20. - A priority date of 15 March 2019 is earlier than 1 January 2020, so the date is "before the cut-off". - A priority date of 2 February 2020 is later than 1 January 2020, so it is not. - A priority date of exactly 1 January 2020 is not "earlier than" the cut-off, under USCIS's wording.

Do not treat this as a rule of thumb for any actual case. Which category applies and which country is charged are the parts that go wrong in practice.

Why dates move, and why they go backwards

The bulletin is revised each month. USCIS says: "DOS, working with the Department of Homeland Security, revises the Visa Bulletin each month to estimate immigrant visa availability for prospective adjustment of status applicants. If DOS makes any changes to either chart in the Visa Bulletin after publishing it, we will review those changes and determine if any further action is necessary."

Dates can hold, move ahead, or move back. When they move back it is called retrogression. USCIS: "Sometimes, a priority date that is current one month will not be current the next month, or the cut-off date will move backward to an earlier date. This is called visa retrogression, which occurs when more people apply for a visa in a particular category than there are visas available for that month. Visa retrogression generally occurs when the annual limit for a category or country has been exhausted or is expected to run out soon. When the new fiscal year begins on Oct. 1, a new supply of visa numbers becomes available. Usually, but not always, the new supply returns the cut-off dates to where they were before retrogression."

The fiscal year starting 1 October is the reason the October bulletin draws so much attention. It does not mean that any particular movement will follow. No page that reports a "prediction" is describing a rule.

Because a visa must be available when an I-485 is filed, a retrogressed date can make a filing premature. A concurrent filing of an I-485 with an I-130 or I-140 is allowed "only when approval of the underlying immigrant petition would make a visa immediately available to you", and for a preference case only if the priority date is earlier than the Final Action cut-off, the chart shows "C", or the Dates for Filing chart is permitted for that month. For an immediate relative USCIS says "you can always concurrently file your Form I-485 application with the underlying Form I-130."

What the bulletin does not tell you

The bulletin is about visa number availability, which is only one of the conditions. It does not say: - How long a case will take. Processing is separate from the queue. USCIS and the Department of State publish their own processing information; this page does not quote times. - Whether a petition will be approved. The priority date is fixed by the filing of a petition that must still be approved (8 CFR 245.1(g)(2)). - Whether a person is admissible. The inadmissibility grounds in 8 U.S.C. 1182 apply whatever the date. - Whether someone can adjust status in the United States. That is a separate legal test in 8 U.S.C. 1255 and 8 CFR 245.1; see the page on adjustment versus consular processing. - What a change in family circumstances does to a case. That affects the category and the date, and it is an attorney question.

If your case is a preference case, a few document checks are worth doing before reading a chart: the category named on the Form I-797 approval or receipt, the date of filing on that notice, the country of chargeability, and any notes the bulletin prints under the chart. For a spouse of a US citizen, the bulletin does not apply in the same way; see the marriage green card page.

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Questions people ask

What is a priority date?

For family-sponsored immigrants it is the date the Form I-130 is properly filed with USCIS (USCIS, Visa Availability and Priority Dates). 8 CFR 245.1(g)(2) says the priority date "shall be fixed by the date on which such approved petition was filed." For employment-based categories it depends on whether a labor certification is required.

What does 'current' mean in the Visa Bulletin?

A category shown as "C" means, in USCIS's words, that immigrant visas "are currently (immediately) available to all qualified adjustment of status applicants and overseas immigrant visa applicants in that particular preference category and country of chargeability." A date means visas are available to people with an earlier priority date.

What is the difference between Final Action Dates and Dates for Filing?

Final Action Dates show when a visa can be approved. Dates for Filing show when applicants are notified to assemble documents for the National Visa Center and, when USCIS says so for that month, when adjustment applicants can file. USCIS says that unless its charts page indicates otherwise, "you must use the 'Application Final Action Dates'" to determine when you can file a Form I-485.

What is visa retrogression?

When a cut-off date moves backward or a category becomes unavailable. USCIS says it "occurs when more people apply for a visa in a particular category than there are visas available for that month."

Do immediate relatives of US citizens use the Visa Bulletin?

Not for a queue. USCIS says "Immigrant visas for immediate relatives of U.S. citizens are unlimited, so they are always available." Spouses, minor children and parents of citizens are immediate relatives (8 U.S.C. 1151(b)(2)(A)(i)).

Can this page tell me what the Visa Bulletin will show next month?

No. The bulletin is published by the Department of State and changes monthly, and no rule predicts its movement. Check the current month's bulletin at travel.state.gov and the USCIS adjustment filing charts page.

Sources

Last checked 2026-10-10.

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