Frequently Asked Questions

Your priority date is the date USCIS received your I-140 petition (or your labor certification filing date for EB-2/EB-3 PERM cases). It determines your place in the green card queue — the earlier your priority date, the closer you are to the front of the line.

Your priority date is "current" when it falls on or before the cutoff date published in the visa bulletin for your category and country. Once current on the Final Action chart, USCIS can approve your green card. Once current on the Filing chart, you can submit your I-485 application.

The Final Action (FA) date is when USCIS can approve and issue your green card. The Filing date (Chart B) is typically a few months ahead of FA and is when you can submit your I-485 application — even though the green card itself cannot be issued yet. USCIS announces each month whether Chart B is available for use.

U.S. immigration law caps employment-based green cards at 7% of the total annual allotment per country. India and China generate far more applicants than this cap allows, creating backlogs that can span decades. Other countries like Mexico and the Philippines also have backlogs, though generally shorter than India's.

The U.S. Department of State publishes the visa bulletin around the 15th of each month for the following month. For example, the May bulletin is typically released in mid-April. You can find all bulletins at travel.state.gov.

Form I-485, Application to Register Permanent Residence or Adjust Status, is the form you file to obtain a green card while already in the United States. Once your priority date is current (or your Filing date is current), you can submit this form to USCIS to begin the final stage of the green card process.

These are employment-based (EB) green card preference categories:

EB-1 — Priority workers: persons of extraordinary ability, outstanding professors and researchers, and multinational executives/managers.

EB-2 — Advanced degree professionals or persons of exceptional ability. Also includes the National Interest Waiver (NIW) subcategory, which does not require employer sponsorship.

EB-3 — Skilled workers (jobs requiring at least 2 years of training), professionals (jobs requiring a bachelor's degree), and other workers.

Consult a qualified immigration attorney immediately. They can review your case, confirm your eligibility, ensure your supporting documents are complete, and guide you through the I-485 filing process. Acting quickly matters — visa numbers can retrogress, and being prepared in advance is important.

Data is updated manually each month when new visa bulletins and USCIS I-485 inventory reports are published. The Data Sources card at the bottom of your results shows the exact bulletin month and inventory date currently loaded.

Projections are estimates based on recent historical trends in visa bulletin advancement and USCIS approval rates. Visa bulletin movement is unpredictable — the Department of State can advance, hold, or retrogress dates at any time based on visa demand and available numbers. Always treat projections as rough estimates, not guarantees.

Your priority date and inputs are never sent to any server and are not stored. All analysis runs locally in your browser. We do collect anonymized usage analytics via Google Analytics — see our Privacy Policy for full details.

Yes — the tool supports all EB countries: India, China, Mexico, Philippines, and Rest of World (which covers all other countries). Select your country of birth in the tool and the results will reflect the correct visa bulletin cutoff dates for your situation.