Your relative’s Form I-130 was approved, and now everyone tells you to “watch the Visa Bulletin.” Then you open it and find a grid of abbreviations and dates that seem to have nothing to do with your family. That confusion is completely normal. For anyone waiting in a family preference category, the monthly Visa Bulletin is the document that decides when a Green Card case can actually move forward. Below, we explain how to find your row and column, which chart applies to you, and what the dates really mean for your wait.
Getachew & Ansari Immigration Attorneys, P.C. has helped families through these waits since 1996. You cannot control how quickly Visa Bulletin cutoff dates advance, but understanding the bulletin helps you recognize when your case becomes eligible for the next step.
What Is the Green Card Visa Bulletin?
The Visa Bulletin is a monthly publication from the United States Department of State. It shows which applicants in numerically limited immigrant categories can move forward, based on the date their petition was filed. The current and past bulletins are posted on the State Department’s Visa Bulletin page, and each new bulletin is usually released around the middle of the month before it takes effect.
The reason it exists is simple. Congress caps the number of family preference Green Cards each year. For fiscal year 2026, the worldwide family-sponsored preference limit is 226,000, and the State Department calculates the applicable limits again at the start of each fiscal year. Far more people qualify than there are visas. The bulletin is how the government manages that line. If you are still working out which category your relative falls into, our family immigration lawyers can help you sort that out before you file.
Who Needs to Watch the Visa Bulletin?
Not everyone. Immediate relatives of United States citizens are not subject to the annual cap, so they never wait for a Visa Bulletin date. Immediate relatives are the spouse of a U.S. citizen, an unmarried child under 21 of a U.S. citizen, and the parent of a U.S. citizen who is at least 21. If you are sponsoring your parents for a Green Card or petitioning for your spouse as a citizen, the bulletin does not control your timeline.
Everyone else in a family case waits in one of five preference categories:
- F1: Unmarried sons and daughters (21 or older) of U.S. citizens
- F2A: Spouses and unmarried children (under 21) of lawful permanent residents
- F2B: Unmarried sons and daughters (21 or older) of lawful permanent residents
- F3: Married sons and daughters of U.S. citizens
- F4: Brothers and sisters of U.S. citizens who are at least 21
Each preference category has a statutory allocation. F1 and F3 each have a base allocation of 23,400 visas, while F4 has a base allocation of 65,000, although unused numbers from other family preference categories can increase those totals under the statutory formula. F2 receives at least 114,200 numbers, with 77 percent allocated to F2A and 23 percent to F2B. Most F2A numbers are also exempt from the ordinary per-country limit. Siblings face the longest waits of any family category, which we cover in detail in our guide on whether a sibling can sponsor you for a Green Card.
What Is a Priority Date and Where Do You Find It?
Your priority date is your place in line. In a family case, it is generally the date United States Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) received the properly filed Form I-130. You can find it printed on the Form I-797 receipt or approval notice for the petition.
Keep that notice somewhere safe. Every time you check the bulletin, you will be comparing the date on it against a single cell in a chart.
How Do You Read the Family-Sponsored Chart?
Each family chart has five rows, one for each preference category, and five columns. The columns are “All Chargeability Areas Except Those Listed,” then China (mainland born), India, Mexico, and the Philippines. Those four countries have separate columns because demand from them is high enough to hit the per-country limit, which caps any single country at 7 percent of the total family and employment preference visas available.
To read it, find the row for your category and the column for your country of chargeability. Then compare the date in that cell to your priority date:
- If your priority date is earlier than the listed date, you have reached the cutoff shown on that chart. What you can do next depends on whether you are looking at the Dates for Filing chart or the Final Action Dates chart, which we explain below.
- If the cell shows “C,” the category is current and every priority date qualifies.
- If the cell shows “U,” no visas are available in that category that month.
Here is a hypothetical. Say you were born in Ethiopia, you are married, your U.S. citizen parent filed an F3 petition for you with a priority date of May 3, 2014, and the F3 cell in the All Chargeability column reads 01NOV14. Because May 3, 2014 is earlier than November 1, 2014, you have reached the cutoff on that chart.
What Is Chargeability, and Can Cross-Chargeability Help You?
Chargeability is usually based on your country of birth, not your citizenship or where you live today. Someone born in Mexico who has lived in Canada for 20 years is still charged to Mexico.
Cross-chargeability is an exception found in Section 202(b) of the Immigration and Nationality Act. In some situations, a person can be charged to their spouse’s country of birth when the couple immigrates together. Consider an F4 beneficiary born in India whose spouse was born in Ethiopia. If both spouses are issued immigrant visas and enter together, the Indian-born beneficiary may be able to use the All Chargeability date instead of the longer India date. In a backlogged category, that difference can amount to years.
There is also a narrower rule for people born in a country where neither parent was born or had a residence at the time of the person’s birth. In certain circumstances, the person may instead be charged to a parent’s country. We raise both possibilities with families from India, Mexico, and the Philippines, because they are easy to miss.
Final Action Dates or Dates for Filing: Which Chart Applies to You?
Each bulletin has two family charts. The “Final Action Dates” chart shows when a visa can actually be issued or a Green Card approved. The “Dates for Filing” chart is usually a little ahead of it and shows when you can start the paperwork.
Which one you use depends on where you are completing your case:
- Applicants abroad going through consular processing typically use the Dates for Filing chart to know when the National Visa Center will accept their documents. The visa itself can be issued only once the Final Action Date is reached.
- Applicants inside the United States filing Form I-485 must use the Final Action Dates chart unless USCIS announces otherwise. Each month, USCIS posts which chart it will accept for family cases on its adjustment of status filing charts page.
Check the USCIS page every month instead of assuming last month’s chart still applies. For people already living here, our adjustment of status lawyers can confirm whether you qualify to file in the United States at all, which is a separate question from whether your date is current.
Why Do Visa Bulletin Dates Sometimes Move Backward?
Dates do not always move forward. When demand in a category is higher than the number of visas left, the State Department can move the date back. This is called retrogression, and it happens most often near the end of the fiscal year, which runs from October 1 to September 30. The bulletin also warns that a category can become “Unavailable” before the year ends if its annual limit is reached.
In practical terms, if your date becomes current, file as soon as you can. We have watched families lose months because they waited to gather “one more document” and the date retrogressed. If you file an adjustment application while your date is current and it later retrogresses, the application generally stays pending until your date is current again, but USCIS cannot approve it until then.
Does a Current Priority Date Guarantee a Green Card?
No. A current priority date does not by itself guarantee that an immigrant visa or Green Card can be approved. You must still meet all applicable eligibility and admissibility requirements, including financial sponsorship requirements where they apply, and get through the interview.
Separate entry and visa issuance restrictions may also affect some applicants. Presidential Proclamation 10949 imposed restrictions beginning in June 2025, and Presidential Proclamation 10998 continued and expanded those restrictions effective January 1, 2026. Under the current proclamation, nationals of certain countries, including Afghanistan and Iran, are subject to full restrictions, while nationals of other countries face partial restrictions. Proclamation 10998 also eliminated the broad categorical exception that had applied to certain immediate family immigrant visas.
The proclamation has its own limits and exceptions. According to the State Department’s guidance, it applies only to people who were outside the United States on January 1, 2026 and did not hold a valid visa on that date, and some applicants may qualify for an exception. Our overview of the 2026 travel ban expansion explains which countries are affected. Because these rules can change, check the State Department’s current guidance before relying on a projected timeline.
How Does the Visa Bulletin Affect Children Who Are Turning 21?
For derivative children in preference cases, turning 21 can affect eligibility. The Child Status Protection Act (CSPA) can protect some children from “aging out,” using a statutory age calculation tied in part to visa availability and petition processing time. USCIS changed its policy effective August 15, 2025, and under the current policy it generally uses the Final Action Dates chart to determine visa availability for CSPA age calculations, subject to transition rules for some applications that were already pending.
CSPA also generally requires the child to seek to acquire permanent residence within one year after a visa becomes available, although exceptions may apply. If a child in your case is close to 21, read our guide to Child Status Protection Act policy updates and talk to an attorney well before the birthday.
How Can You Protect Your Place in Line?
A few habits make a real difference:
- Check both the State Department bulletin and the USCIS chart page every month.
- Keep your mailing address and email current with USCIS and the National Visa Center.
- Report major life changes, such as a marriage or divorce, that can change your category or end eligibility.
- Respond to the National Visa Center promptly once your case is active.
That last point is not a formality. Under Section 203(g) of the Immigration and Nationality Act, the State Department must terminate an immigrant visa registration when an applicant fails to apply within one year after being notified that a visa is available. Termination can mean losing the benefits of the petition, including the priority date. The petition may be reinstated if, within two years of that notice, the applicant shows that the failure to apply resulted from circumstances beyond their control. Families who have waited a decade should not have to rely on that exception.
Contact an Experienced Family Immigration Lawyer at Getachew & Ansari Immigration Attorneys, P.C.
The Visa Bulletin measures your wait, but it does not tell you what to do when your date arrives, whether cross-chargeability could shorten the line, or how a travel restriction affects your relative. Those are the questions that decide how a family case goes. Our family immigration attorneys track priority dates for our clients, prepare filings ahead of time so they are ready the month a date becomes current, and handle both consular processing and adjustment of status.
Managing Attorney Medya Ansari came to the United States as an immigrant herself, and she understands what it means to wait years for a family member to join you. She leads a team that speaks English, Farsi, Dari, Spanish, and Amharic. You can learn more about our firm and the communities we serve across San Jose and the Bay Area.
Call 408-292-7995 or contact our office to schedule a consultation and have your priority date and category reviewed.
This article provides general information and is not legal advice. Visa Bulletin dates change monthly, and immigration policies may change. Check the current Visa Bulletin and the USCIS adjustment of status filing charts before making decisions about your case.
