Visa Bulletin Checker: Is Your Priority Date Current?

Your priority date is the date that holds your place in line for a green card. For family cases it is the day USCIS received your I-130 petition. For most employment cases it is the day the PERM labor certification was filed, or the day the I-140 was filed if your category does not require PERM. You keep that date as your spot in the queue, and you become current once the bulletin cutoff for your category and country moves past it.

Your priority date is current when it is earlier than the cutoff date for your category and country of chargeability. A "C" in the cell means the whole category is current, so your date does not matter, and a "U" means no numbers are being issued that month. A date that exactly matches the cutoff is not current yet; it becomes current only once the cutoff moves past it.

It is usually your country of birth that counts, not the passport you carry or your citizenship. Holding a second passport normally does not change your place in line, but cross-chargeability can sometimes charge you to your spouse's country of birth (or a parent's, for a child) when those dates are more favorable. This is general information, not legal advice, so check your specific situation before relying on it.

Final Action Dates show when your green card can actually be approved, while Dates for Filing show the earliest you may submit your application or documents, often months sooner. Each month USCIS announces which chart adjustment-of-status applicants may use, and family and employment categories can be on different charts, so check which one applies to you. If you immigrate through a U.S. consulate, the National Visa Center also uses Dates for Filing when it asks you to send in your documents.

There is no fixed release date. The State Department publishes one Visa Bulletin each month, usually during the month before the one it covers. This page updates when the new bulletin is published.

It is a rough, non-binding estimate, so it can be wrong. It projects the recent pace at which the cutoff for your category and country has moved, ignoring the large backward jumps that often happen at the October fiscal-year reset. Visa Bulletin dates are set monthly and can speed up, stall, or move backward without notice, so do not make travel, job, or filing decisions on the projection alone.

It moved backward because demand in your category ran ahead of the limited annual supply of green card numbers. The State Department moves the cutoff back to slow issuance, which is called retrogression, and dates often recover later in the fiscal year. Our checker flags any backward move for your category this month, so you are not caught off guard.

Yes. The checker is free and needs no account. It compares your priority date with the published cutoffs, and Immiva charges only if you choose its paid filing help, which starts at $99. Government filing fees are separate, and our pricing page lists each application's preparation fee.