Visa Bulletins

For Employment-Based & Family-Sponsored Immigrant Visas

• CURRENT VISA BULLETIN FOR EMPLOYMENT-BASED IMMIGRANT VISAS
• CURRENT VISA BULLETINS FOR FAMILY-SPONSORED IMMIGRANT VISAS

What Is the “Processing Time” for My Visa?

Processing time is the time it takes from when you first initiate the immigration process and receive your “priority date,” until the USCIS ultimately processes your application and issues your green card. Processing time could be with almost no delay, or it could be a matter of many years.

What Does “Current” Mean?

If a visa category is "current," you may petition for permanent residence without delay. (Some categories are “current” for immigrants of some countries but not for others.) Not surprisingly, visas are (meant to be) handed out in the order they are petitioned for.

What Is a Priority Date?

When you begin the immigration process, you will receive a "priority date." This date represents your "place in line." (You will be in a separate line based on your nationality for your petition for permanent residence.) Your priority date can be thought of like your number ticket given out to at a deli or a DMV/BMV.

What Is a Priority Date Cutoff?

Instead of calling out numbers, the DOS has moving priority-date cutoffs, which indicate the first priority date that could not be reached, given the statutory numerical limitations. In the number ticket example, everyone with a number lower than the one called would be able to receive service.

What Is the Monthly Visa Bulletin?

Each month, the U.S. Department of State (DOS) releases the Visa Bulletin, which reports the availability of employment-based and family-sponsored immigrant visas for that month.

The monthly Visa Bulletin is how the DOS declares priority date cutoffs. In a perfectly stable world, the priority date for each nationality of an immigrant in each category would likely advance by one month in each Bulletin. However, the real world is far from this ideal. In fact, sometimes a priority date cutoff will retrogress further into the past. When this occurs, it is likely that some immigrants who were able to apply for permanent residence have lost this ability — and instead have to wait even longer.

Above, you will find our analysis of the current Visa Bulletin, split into family-sponsored and employment-based categories.