Question 1

Where do the step lengths come from?

Accepted Answer

The wage request and the PERM use the filing days DOL decided on its last working day: the latest-filed tenth is the quick end, the middle is typical, the earliest-filed tenth the slow end. A wage request or PERM you've already filed is dated from the cases still ahead of it at DOL's measured pace, as its own case page dates it. Recruitment uses how long employers took in DOL's own record, first recruitment step to filing, never under the 60 days the rules require. The I-140, the I-485, the work permit and the travel document use USCIS's quarterly medians over the last year. Through a consulate, the National Visa Center's own weekly figures date its case creation and document review. Every length is yours to change in its step.

Question 2

How is the wait for the visa bulletin worked out?

Accepted Answer

Two ways, and you pick which one dates the plan. The first moves your line's final action cutoff forward at the pace it has kept, widened by how far off that pace has been on past bulletins. The second counts the people ahead of your priority date from USCIS's own figures and divides by the green cards your line is issued a year. Both stay on the page, and you can set the pace or the yearly number yourself.

Question 3

Why is there no date for my green card?

Accepted Answer

When your line is unavailable in the newest bulletin, or its cutoff hasn't moved enough to measure a pace and no count of people ahead exists, no figure can date the wait. The planner says so instead of guessing, and every step before the bulletin is still dated.

Question 4

Which parts can an employer control?

Accepted Answer

Recruitment, the day the PERM is filed and the day the I-140 goes in. The I-140 must be filed within 180 days of certification, and missing that restarts the case. Every other step is a queue at DOL, USCIS or the State Department.

Question 5

Can I file the I-485 with the I-140?

Accepted Answer

Only inside the US, and only when your priority date is already current. Then the planner files them together, which is called concurrent filing. Otherwise the I-485 waits until the bulletin reaches your date.

Question 6

What if I'll get the green card at a consulate abroad?

Accepted Answer

Choose "At a US consulate abroad". The I-485 step becomes the National Visa Center and the consulate: NVC takes the case once the I-140 is approved, the documents go in once your date is current, and NVC's review time comes from the State Department's own weekly figure. The consulate's interview wait has no public figure, so the planner assumes one to six months, and you set your consulate's. While State has interviews paused (since late August 2026), the planner gives no visa date until you set that length yourself. The consulate pages show where each post stands. The fees change too: State's visa fee and USCIS's immigrant fee for each person, and no work permit or travel document.

Question 7

Does premium processing shorten the whole timeline?

Accepted Answer

It shortens one step. Premium processing applies to the I-140 only, so it does nothing for the wage request, recruitment, the PERM decision or the wait for a visa number.

Question 8

What does it include in the cost, and who pays?

Accepted Answer

USCIS's fees from its fee schedule for every form, on the day each is due, and any costs you add: the attorneys, the recruitment and the medical exam. DOL charges nothing for the wage request or the PERM. The employer must pay the PERM's own costs, the attorney and the recruitment included (20 CFR 656.12(b)); who pays the rest is for you and the employer to agree.

The whole green card timeline

Your green card timeline

How long each step takes

When your priority date becomes current

What it costs, and when

Email me when my cutoff moves

FAQs

The rules behind these numbers