Verified against official sources — 1 Nov 2026

How to Read the Visa Bulletin: Priority Dates, Charts and the India Backlog

NEW Published 1 November 2026

Illustration of a queue of people beside a large chart grid with a magnifying glass and a marker pin

A plain-English guide to the State Department's monthly bulletin — what a priority date is, how the two charts differ, who decides which chart you file under, and why India's dates sit years behind the rest of the world.

Every month, the U.S. Department of State publishes the Visa Bulletin: charts that decide who may take the next step toward a green card and whose case can finally be approved. For applicants born in India, it is also the most frustrating document in the process — an approved petition can sit behind a cut-off date more than a decade old. This guide explains how to read it properly: where your priority date comes from, how to find your exact cell in the grid, what the two charts each control, and the machinery — annual limits and a per-country cap — that produces the India backlog. One warning first: bulletin dates move in both directions, so always check the current month's bulletin rather than relying on any figure quoted anywhere, including here.

Quick answer

Your priority date is your place in the queue — generally the date your immigrant petition was properly filed, or, where a labor certification was required, the date the Department of Labor accepted it for processing. Each month you compare that date with one cell of the Visa Bulletin: your preference category row, under your chargeability column (usually your country of birth). The Final Action Dates chart controls when a visa number can actually be issued or a green card approved — a number is available only if your priority date is earlier than the date shown, or the cell reads "C" for current. The Dates for Filing chart runs earlier: it controls when you may submit documents to the National Visa Center or, in months when USCIS allows it, file Form I-485. USCIS announces each month, on its own website, which chart adjustment-of-status applicants must use.

SECTION 01What the Visa Bulletin Is — and Who It Applies To

The Visa Bulletin is a monthly publication of the U.S. Department of State. USCIS describes its function in one sentence: "The Visa Bulletin indicates when statutorily limited visas are available for issuance to prospective immigrants based on their individual priority date." Because Congress limits how many immigrant visas can be issued each year in the family-sponsored and employment-based preference categories, someone has to manage the queue — and the bulletin is the queue made public.

Two structural points prevent most misreadings. First, the bulletin governs only the numerically limited preference categories. Immediate relatives of U.S. citizens — spouses, unmarried children under 21, and parents of citizens aged at least 21 — are exempt from the numerical restrictions: as the USCIS Policy Manual puts it, an immigrant visa for an immediate relative "is always immediately available," so those families never consult these charts. Second, the bulletin is not a processing-times table. It says nothing about how fast an agency is working; it states the cut-off date that demand has produced for that month.

A practical detail that trips up new readers: the State Department prints the bulletin's dates in day–month–year format (dd-mmm-yy), so "01NOV13" means 1 November 2013, not January 11. Dates in this guide are spelled out in full.

SECTION 02Your Priority Date: What It Is and Where Yours Comes From

The priority date is the date that fixes your place in line. USCIS states the general rule on its filing-charts page: "Your priority date is generally the date when your relative or employer properly filed the immigrant visa petition on your behalf with USCIS. If a labor certification is required to be filed with your immigrant visa petition, the priority date is the date the labor certification application was accepted for processing by the Department of Labor."

Applied to the cases most readers of this guide hold:

Employment-based, with a PERM labor certification (most EB-2 and EB-3 cases): your priority date is the date the Department of Labor accepted the PERM application for processing — usually months before the Form I-140 was even filed. Employment-based, no labor certification required (EB-1 categories and EB-2 national interest waiver cases): it is the date the Form I-140 was properly filed with USCIS. The USCIS Policy Manual states the employment-based rule as "the earliest of" those two dates, as applicable. Family-sponsored preference cases: the date the Form I-130 — or, in certain instances, Form I-360 — was properly filed.

You do not have to reconstruct the date from memory: the Policy Manual notes that "a prospective immigrant's priority date can be found on Notice of Action (Form I-797) for the petition filed on his or her behalf." Two further rules matter to families. Derivative spouses and children take the same priority date and classification as the principal. And a beneficiary of multiple approved employment-based petitions in the first, second, or third preferences "is entitled to the earliest priority date" — an old date from an earlier employer's approved petition can still be your place in line.

Why the queue exists at all is statutory: under Section 201 of the INA, the family-sponsored preference level is a minimum of 226,000 a year and the worldwide employment-based level at least 140,000, while Section 203(e) provides that preference visas are issued "in the order in which a petition on behalf of each has been filed" — exactly what a priority date records.

SECTION 03The Grid: Categories Down the Side, Chargeability Across the Top

Every chart in the bulletin is the same grid. The rows are preference categories. The columns are chargeability areas: "All Chargeability Areas Except Those Listed," then separate columns for the oversubscribed areas — in the November 2026 bulletin, China (mainland-born), India, Mexico, and the Philippines.

"Chargeability" is the country your visa number is charged against, and the USCIS Policy Manual describes allocation as turning on "country to which the visa will be charged (usually the country of birth)." Note: your country of birth — not citizenship, passport, or current residence — normally selects your column. An Indian citizen born in a third country is usually charged to that country; a citizen of another country born in India is usually charged to India. Section 10 covers the one big exception: charging to a spouse's or parent's country instead.

The rows work as follows. Employment-based rows run 1st through 5th (EB-1 to EB-5), with a separate "Other Workers" row inside the third preference; family-sponsored rows run F1, F2A, F2B, F3, and F4. Your cell is where your row crosses your column; the date (or letter) in it is the only figure in the bulletin that applies to you.

SECTION 04Chart One: Final Action Dates — When a Visa Can Actually Be Issued

The Final Action Dates chart answers the only question that finishes a case: is a visa number authorised for this applicant this month? The bulletin prints the rule directly above the chart: "'C' means current, i.e., numbers are authorized for issuance to all qualified applicants; and 'U' means unauthorized, i.e., numbers are not authorized for issuance. (NOTE: Numbers are authorized for issuance only for applicants whose priority date is earlier than the final action date listed below.)"

Three reading rules follow. First, a date in your cell means the category is oversubscribed, and only applicants with priority dates earlier than that date may receive a number — an equal date is not early enough. Second, "C" removes the queue for that cell: every qualified applicant may proceed. Third, "U" closes the cell: no numbers are authorised for anyone in it that month.

For applicants inside the United States, final action has a second consequence USCIS states on its Visa Retrogression page: "an immigrant visa must be available to the applicant both at the time of filing and at the time of adjudication." Filing early under the second chart (next section) therefore does not finish your case; approval must wait until your priority date also qualifies under the Final Action Dates chart in force when your case is decided.

SECTION 05Chart Two: Dates for Filing — The Earlier, Preparatory Line

The Dates for Filing chart sits ahead of the final action line. The bulletin describes it as reflecting "dates for filing visa applications within a timeframe justifying immediate action in the application process." For consular applicants, its function is documentary: if your priority date is earlier than the date in your cell, you may — after the National Visa Center notifies you — "assemble and submit required documents to the Department of State's National Visa Center," so the case is documentarily ready when a number reaches it.

For applicants in the United States, the Dates for Filing chart can do something more valuable: in months when USCIS designates it, it sets the threshold for filing Form I-485 itself — often months or years before final approval is possible. Whether it has that effect in a given month is not the State Department's call; it is USCIS's, which is the subject of the next section.

SECTION 06Which Chart Counts for Form I-485? USCIS Decides, Monthly

The bulletin itself states the default: unless USCIS indicates otherwise on its website, "individuals seeking to file applications for adjustment of status with USCIS must use the 'Final Action Dates' charts." The exception is the monthly designation: when USCIS determines there are more immigrant visas available for the fiscal year than there are known applicants, it states on its website that applicants may instead use the Dates for Filing charts.

USCIS publishes that decision on its Adjustment of Status Filing Charts page (uscis.gov/visabulletininfo): "If USCIS determines there are more immigrant visas available for a fiscal year than there are known applicants for such visas, we will state on this page that you may use the Dates for Filing chart. Otherwise, we will indicate on this page that you must use the Final Action Dates chart." USCIS anticipates "designating one of the two charts each month," within about a week of the bulletin's publication, weighing visas remaining against documentarily qualified applications reported by the State Department, pending adjustment applications, and historical drop-off rates.

Two worked facts, both checked on USCIS's own November 2026 page on 1 November 2026. For November 2026, USCIS's "When to File" page posts the Dates for Filing chart for both family-sponsored and employment-based adjustment filings — so that month, an applicant whose priority date clears the filing chart (but not yet the final action chart) may file Form I-485. And one exception inside the mechanism: if a category is "current" on the Final Action Dates chart, or its final action date is later than the filing date, applicants may file using the Final Action Dates chart that month in any event.

SECTION 07Finding Your Place: A Five-Step Reading, With a Worked Example

USCIS's own instructions for using the charts reduce to a routine you can repeat every month:

Step 1. Take your priority date from your petition's Form I-797 notice (Section 02). Step 2. Confirm your category row — for example, employment-based 2nd preference — and your chargeability column, normally your country of birth. Step 3. If you are filing Form I-485, check USCIS's filing-charts page to learn which chart governs this month; consular applicants use the Final Action Dates chart for issuance and the Dates for Filing chart for document submission. Step 4. Read your cell: "C" means you may proceed; a date means you may proceed only if your priority date is earlier than it; "U" means no one in that cell proceeds. Step 5. Repeat monthly — and expect movement in either direction (Section 08).

Worked example — illustrative dates, not real ones

Suppose a bulletin (this is an invented example) shows, for the employment-based 2nd preference, a final action date of 15 March 2016 for India and a dates-for-filing figure of 1 January 2017 for India, and suppose USCIS has designated the Dates for Filing chart that month. An India-born EB-2 applicant whose PERM was accepted on 20 June 2015 has a priority date earlier than both figures: she may file Form I-485, and USCIS may approve it, because her date also clears the final action line. A second applicant with a priority date of 1 June 2016 clears only the filing figure: he may file Form I-485, but his green card cannot be approved until the final action date advances past 1 June 2016. A third, with a priority date of 1 February 2017, clears neither figure and waits. The comparison is always the same: your date must be earlier than the date in your cell.

Now the real figures, read from the official November 2026 bulletin on 1 November 2026 — quoted to show the scale of the India queue, not as a substitute for the current bulletin. In the November 2026 bulletin, India's employment-based final action dates are 1 February 2023 (1st preference), 1 November 2013 (2nd), and 22 January 2014 (3rd) — while the 2nd preference final action date for all chargeability areas except those listed is 1 April 2025. In the November 2026 bulletin, India's employment-based dates for filing are 1 July 2024 (1st preference) and 15 January 2015 (2nd and 3rd) — which, combined with USCIS's November 2026 designation, is why some India-born applicants with 2015 priority dates could file Form I-485 that month even though approval remains years away. Dates change monthly and can move backwards; check the current bulletin before acting.

SECTION 08Why Dates Move, Stall, and Go Backwards

Cut-off dates are the output of a monthly allocation, not estimates. Consular officers report documentarily qualified applicants to the Department of State and USCIS reports adjustment applicants; then, in the bulletin's words, "allocations in the charts below were made, to the extent possible, in chronological order of reported priority dates." If all reported demand cannot be satisfied, "the category or foreign state in which demand was excessive was deemed oversubscribed," and the final action date becomes "the priority date of the first applicant who could not be reached within the numerical limits."

Movement forward happens as numbers free up within the annual limits and as unused numbers pass down: Section 203(b) allots each of the first three employment preferences 28.6% of the worldwide level "plus any numbers not required" by the preferences ahead of it, so numbers EB-1 does not use fall to EB-2, and numbers the first two preferences do not use fall to EB-3. The family preferences under Section 203(a) pass unused numbers down in the same way.

Movement backwards is retrogression. USCIS defines it directly: "Visa retrogression occurs when more people apply for a visa in a particular category or country than there are visas available for that month." It "typically occurs toward the end of the fiscal year as visa issuance approaches the annual category, or per-country limitations," and a priority date that met the cut-off one month may fail it the next. The bulletin adds the operational consequence: if retrogression becomes necessary mid-allocation, "supplemental requests for numbers will be honored only if the priority date falls within the new final action date," and if an annual limit is reached the category must immediately be made "unavailable." When the new fiscal year begins on 1 October, a fresh supply of numbers usually — USCIS stresses, not always — restores dates toward where they stood.

SECTION 09The India Backlog, in the Bulletin's Own Arithmetic

India's dates are extreme because of one rule applied to the world's largest applicant pool. Section 202 of the INA, as the bulletin summarises it, "prescribes that the per-country limit for preference immigrants is set at 7% of the total annual family-sponsored and employment-based preference limits, i.e., 25,620." The same ceiling applies to every country regardless of population or demand, and the bulletin's prorating provisions currently bite on China (mainland-born), India, Mexico, and the Philippines. India's employment-based demand exceeds its per-country share many times over, so its queue is rationed by cut-off date: a final action date of 1 November 2013 for EB-2 in the November 2026 bulletin means numbers were authorised only for India-born EB-2 applicants whose priority dates precede November 2013.

Two corollaries, because community discussion often gets them wrong. First, spouses and children count too: Section 203(d) entitles a preference immigrant's spouse and children to the same status and order of consideration, and each family member uses a visa number — one worker's case may consume three or four numbers from the same capped pool. Second, nothing in the official sources supports the monthly predictions about when a given date "will become current": cut-offs are set from reported demand against fixed statutory limits, so this guide prints no forecast. The honest tools are the current bulletin, USCIS's filing-chart page, and your own priority date.

SECTION 10The Exception: Cross-Chargeability to a Spouse's or Parent's Country

Chargeability normally follows your own country of birth — but not always. USCIS's Policy Manual explains: "In certain situations, an applicant may benefit from the charging of their visa to their spouse's or parent's country of birth rather than their own. This is known as cross-chargeability." In practice, it "is used where the preference quota category is backlogged for one spouse's country of chargeability but is current for the other spouse's country of chargeability. The principal applicant may cross-charge to the derivative spouse's country, and the derivative spouse may cross-charge to the principal's country."

For an India-born applicant married to someone born in a country that falls under "All Chargeability Areas Except Those Listed," this can move the whole case from the India column to the rest-of-world column — the difference, in the November 2026 figures above, between an EB-2 final action date of 1 November 2013 and one of 1 April 2025. The limits are equally specific: derivative children may cross-charge to either parent's country "as necessary," but "parents may not cross-charge to a child's country." USCIS states the policy behind it: "Whenever possible, cross-chargeability should be applied to preserve family unity and allow family members to immigrate together." Both applicants must themselves be eligible, and where a principal relies on a derivative spouse's country the two cases are approved together — so raise cross-chargeability expressly in your filing or with your attorney, rather than assuming it will be applied.

SECTION 11When Your Date Becomes Current: What Happens Next

If you are adjusting status in the United States and have not yet filed: once your priority date qualifies under the chart USCIS has designated for the month (Section 06), you may file Form I-485, if otherwise eligible. If you have already filed and retrogression overtakes your date, the case is not lost: USCIS holds it "in abeyance until a visa once again becomes available," and finalises processing when visas become available again (see the FAQ). Keep your address current with USCIS while you wait — all correspondence goes to the last address on record.

If you are processing at a consulate abroad, the sequence runs through the National Visa Center. The Dates for Filing chart controls the first move: applicants whose priority dates are earlier than the filing date "may assemble and submit required documents to the Department of State's National Visa Center, following receipt of notification from the National Visa Center containing detailed instructions." The Final Action Dates chart controls the finish: a number is authorised for issuance only when your priority date is earlier than the final action date, or your cell is current. Keep your address current with the National Visa Center, for the same reason as with USCIS.

SECTION 12The Family-Sponsored Charts, Briefly

Everything above applies to the family-sponsored charts with the rows relabelled. The family preferences under Section 203(a) are F1 (unmarried sons and daughters of U.S. citizens), F2A (spouses and children of permanent residents), F2B (unmarried sons and daughters aged 21 or older of permanent residents), F3 (married sons and daughters of U.S. citizens), and F4 (brothers and sisters of adult U.S. citizens), with annual allotments the bulletin prints as 23,400 for F1, 114,200 for the second preference, 23,400 for F3, and 65,000 for F4, plus pass-downs. USCIS designates the family filing chart monthly, on the same page and in the same way; for November 2026 it posts the Dates for Filing chart for family cases too — on which, in the November 2026 bulletin, F2A reads "C" for every chargeability area, while on that bulletin's family Final Action Dates chart India's F4 date stands at 15 December 2006, a measure of the siblings queue. Our separate family sponsorship guide covers who falls in each category; the reading method here — row, column, earlier-than comparison — is identical for both chart families.

FAQFrequently Asked Questions

Where do I find my priority date?

On the Form I-797 Notice of Action for the petition filed on your behalf. What the date represents depends on the case: generally the date the immigrant petition was properly filed with USCIS — but if a labor certification was required, it is the date the Department of Labor accepted that application for processing, which for most PERM-based EB-2 and EB-3 workers is the operative date.

My priority date is the same day as the date in my cell. Can I file or be approved?

No. Both the bulletin and USCIS apply an earlier-than test: numbers are authorised only for applicants whose priority date is earlier than the date listed, and USCIS states you may file if "the date on the chart is current ('C'), or your priority date is earlier than the date on the chart." An equal date has not yet been reached.

USCIS says to use the Dates for Filing chart this month. Does filing Form I-485 mean my green card will be approved soon?

No. The filing chart controls when the application may be submitted; approval requires a visa number under the Final Action Dates chart, and USCIS states a visa must be available both at filing and at adjudication. Many applicants who file under the Dates for Filing chart wait months or years — lawfully, with the application pending — for their final action date to arrive.

My date was current, I filed, and then the bulletin moved backwards. What happens to my case?

It waits, but it is not denied for that reason. USCIS states that if a priority date no longer meets the cut-off at adjudication because of retrogression, "his or her case must be held in abeyance until a visa once again becomes available," and USCIS will finalise processing when visas become available again under the then-current bulletin. Keep your address updated with USCIS throughout.

I was born in India, but my spouse was born in another country. Does that change my column?

It can. Under cross-chargeability, as USCIS's Policy Manual describes it, "an applicant may benefit from the charging of their visa to their spouse's or parent's country of birth rather than their own" — used in practice where one spouse's country is backlogged and the other's is current. Children may cross-charge to either parent's country; parents may never cross-charge to a child's. Both spouses must be eligible, and the claim should be raised expressly.

Editorial note: This AllVisaUpdates guide provides general educational information about how the Visa Bulletin works. It is not legal advice and does not predict any outcome or future movement of cut-off dates. Bulletin figures quoted here are from the November 2026 bulletin, checked on 1 November 2026, and are already history by the time you read this — always work from the current month's bulletin and USCIS's current filing-chart designation.

Official references and verification status

These references were accessed and checked on 1 November 2026 (see the accompanying sources file for the claim-by-claim record): the Department of State Visa Bulletin page, for the bulletin's format; the November 2026 Visa Bulletin itself, for the allocation procedure, the statutory limits and preference classes it prints, the chart rules, and every November 2026 date quoted here; USCIS's November 2026 "When to File" page, for the priority-date definition, the chart-reading steps, and the November 2026 designation; the USCIS Adjustment of Status Filing Charts page, for the monthly designation mechanism; the USCIS Visa Retrogression page, for the retrogression definition and abeyance rule; and the USCIS Policy Manual, Volume 7, Part A, Chapter 6, for priority-date details, chargeability, and cross-chargeability. Limits: every dated figure here is a November 2026 figure and will be superseded; this guide contains no prediction of future cut-off movement, because no official source supports one; and consular processing is described only at the level the bulletin itself states, since post-specific instructions vary and were not checked.

General educational information, not individualized legal advice. Consult a qualified U.S. immigration attorney for case-specific questions.

General information only. This guide is based on official sources publicly available and checked on the date shown on this page. Visa rules change, and consular and USCIS officers decide every case on its own facts — nothing here is a confirmation or a guarantee for your individual case, and this is not legal advice. Always confirm the current requirement on the official page linked in this guide before you act, and consider a qualified immigration attorney for your specific situation.