Green Card Wait Time Estimator

A priority date is the date that establishes your place in the immigration visa queue. For employment-based cases, it is usually the date your PERM labor certification application was filed. For family-based cases, it is the date your I-130 petition was filed with USCIS.

We analyze 24 months of visa bulletin history to calculate the average monthly movement (velocity) of cutoff dates. Using this velocity, we project how many months it will take for the cutoff date to reach your priority date. Three scenarios (optimistic, base, and conservative) are calculated using the 75th, 50th, and 25th percentile movement rates.

Final Action Dates determine when an immigrant visa can actually be issued or when you can have your adjustment of status approved. Dates for Filing indicate when you can submit your application (I-485 or DS-260). USCIS announces each month which chart to use for filing purposes. The Dates for Filing chart usually moves faster, giving applicants an earlier opportunity to file.

Retrogression occurs when the demand for visas in a particular category and country exceeds the annual supply. When too many applications are filed, the State Department moves cutoff dates backward to slow the pace of visa issuance. This is most common for India and China in employment-based categories due to high demand and per-country limits.

U.S. immigration law limits any single country to no more than 7% of the total employment-based and family-based visas issued each year. Since India and China have far more applicants than this cap allows, significant backlogs have developed. Some EB-2 and EB-3 applicants from India face waits of 10+ years.

The U.S. State Department publishes a new Visa Bulletin around the middle of each month, covering the following month. We update our database as soon as the new bulletin is released. The "Latest Bulletin" indicator above shows the most recent data loaded.

Your priority date generally does not change once established. However, it can change if you port your priority date from an earlier-filed petition, if your petition is revoked and refiled, or in certain situations involving substitution of labor certifications (which is now restricted). If your employer files a new PERM, you may be able to retain your original priority date.

When the visa bulletin cutoff date advances past your priority date (or shows "C" for current), a visa number is available for you. If you filed an I-485 adjustment of status application, USCIS can adjudicate it. If you are going through consular processing, the National Visa Center (NVC) can schedule your immigrant visa interview at a U.S. embassy or consulate.