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Visa bulletin cutoffs

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Priority date calculator

Where an employment-based priority date sits against the visa bulletin cutoffs, and which way those cutoffs have been moving.

Consulate interviews are paused at most posts. State postponed immigrant visa interviews worldwide from about August 25, 2026 for new public charge training and has named no end date, so a current date abroad isn't an interview yet. An I-485 filed inside the US isn't part of this pause. Where each consulate stands (checked November 3, 2026)

Is my priority date current?

Checked against the newest bulletin, with which way the cutoff has been moving: cutoffs go backwards as well as forwards.

Chart

When a green card can actually be approved.

Reading the November 2026 visa bulletin.

These figures come from that bulletin and the ones before it. Cutoffs change every month, in both directions.

Open the current visa bulletin at travel.state.gov

What USCIS is accepting now

For November 2026, USCIS says employment-based adjustment of status filings must use the Dates for Filing chart. You have the Final Action Dates chart selected, which is the other one.

Read from uscis.gov on November 9, 2026. It publishes which chart controls. It doesn't publish the cutoff dates themselves. USCIS filing charts

How the cutoff has moved

Bulletin month along the bottom, the cutoff it published up the side. The shaded part of each column is the range of priority dates that qualified that month, so a taller column is a month more people were current in.

Cutoff date Feb 1999 Jun 2007 Oct 2015 Jun 2005 Sep 2013 Jan 2017 Apr 2020 Nov 2026Bulletin month
  • The cutoff that month
  • Dates that qualified
  • Current, open to every date
  • Closed, no visa numbers

From the 238 visa bulletins published between June 2005 and November 2026.

What this can’t tell you

  • Enter a priority date to see where it sits against the cutoff.
  • It can’t tell you this month's cutoff. It holds archived bulletins only, and the archive itself stops at November 2026. Check the current bulletin before acting on any of it.

Which queues are actually moving

A cutoff that advances thirty days in a month has stood still: everyone waiting behind the cutoff is exactly as far back as they were. Measured from October 2014 to November 2026, 13 of the 27 queues with a pace moved slower than that.

Where every category stood in November 2026

Employment-based final action cutoffs by category and country of birth, from the November 2026 visa bulletin.
Category Rest of world China India Mexico Philippines
EB-1 Current 1.43x pace August 1, 2023 1.32x pace February 1, 2023 1.28x pace Current 1.43x pace Current 1.43x pace
EB-2 April 1, 2025 1.09x pace October 1, 2021 0.98x pace November 1, 2013 0.37x pace April 1, 2025 1.09x pace April 1, 2025 1.09x pace
EB-3 June 15, 2024 1.05x pace January 22, 2022 1.06x pace January 22, 2014 0.84x pace June 15, 2024 1.05x pace August 15, 2023 0.98x pace
EB-3 other workers June 1, 2022 0.88x pace October 1, 2019 1.17x pace January 22, 2014 0.84x pace June 1, 2022 0.88x pace January 1, 2022 0.85x pace
EB-4 December 15, 2022 0.12x pace December 15, 2022 0.12x pace December 15, 2022 1.26x pace December 15, 2022 1.25x pace December 15, 2022 0.12x pace
EB-5 Current December 1, 2016 0.31x pace December 1, 2023 0.90x pace Current Current
EB5R Current Current Current Current Current
EB5HU Current Current Current Current Current
EB5I Current Current Current Current Current

Cutoffs as published in the November 2026 bulletin. Current means every priority date qualified that month. Closed means none did: no visa numbers were being issued.

Cutoff days gained per calendar month

Between the first and last bulletin with a real cutoff for each line. At 1.00 the cutoff keeps pace with the calendar. Below it, the wait got longer even as the date moved forward.

  • EB-1 All other countries 1.43x
  • EB-1 Mexico 1.43x
  • EB-1 Philippines 1.43x
  • EB-1 China 1.32x
  • EB-1 India 1.28x
  • EB-4 India 1.26x
  • EB-4 Mexico 1.25x
  • EB-3 other workers China 1.17x
  • EB-2 All other countries 1.09x
  • EB-2 Mexico 1.09x
  • EB-2 Philippines 1.09x
  • EB-3 China 1.06x
  • EB-3 All other countries 1.05x
  • EB-3 Mexico 1.05x
  • EB-2 China 0.98x
  • EB-3 Philippines 0.98x
  • EB-5 India 0.90x
  • EB-3 other workers All other countries 0.88x
  • EB-3 other workers Mexico 0.88x
  • EB-3 other workers Philippines 0.85x
  • EB-3 India 0.84x
  • EB-3 other workers India 0.84x
  • EB-2 India 0.37x
  • EB-5 China 0.31x
  • EB-4 All other countries 0.12x
  • EB-4 China 0.12x
  • EB-4 Philippines 0.12x

The upright rule is 1.00, holding station. Bars reaching right of it are queues that shortened. Bars reaching left of it are queues that lengthened while their cutoff was still moving forward.

13 of the 27 queues measured here moved slower than one month per month.

Queues with no pace to report

A pace needs two real cutoff dates to measure between.

These published no cutoff date in this window. Each was open to every priority date:

  • EB-5: All other countries, Mexico, Philippines
  • EB5R, every country
  • EB5HU, every country
  • EB5I, every country

Email me when my cutoff moves

When a new bulletin changes the final-action cutoff for your category and country, one email with the change. Nothing in the months it doesn't move.

No account needed. You confirm by email first, and one click turns it off.

Other emails

Off unless you tick them. The same confirmation covers them.

FAQs

What’s a priority date?
For an employment-based case it’s the date DOL received the PERM application, or the date USCIS received the I-140 where no labor certification was required. It’s your place in the queue for a visa number, and it stays with you across most category changes.
Where do these cutoffs come from?
From the State Department's own bulletin pages, with most bulletins back to June 2005. State's site has turned away automated reads since November 2, 2026, so each new bulletin is copied from State's own page in a browser and shows here within a day of State posting it. Every figure is labelled with the bulletin it came from, and each bulletin is one click away on the State Department's own site.
What does it mean when a category shows U?
Unavailable. No visa numbers are being issued in that category that month, so no priority date is current, however early it is. It usually means the annual limit has been reached and it typically resets at the start of the next fiscal year in October.
Can a cutoff move backwards?
Yes, and it does. Retrogression happens when demand in a category turns out higher than expected, and a date that was current one month can stop being current the next. That’s the main reason this page shows the whole series.
The cutoff moved forward. Why is the wait no shorter?
Because a cutoff has to advance about thirty days a month just for the queue to stay the same length. It moves forward while a calendar month passes, so anyone holding a fixed priority date only gains ground when it advances faster than that. Many employment-based queues moved slower than that, so the date on the page went up while the wait got longer. The pace figures on this page measure it, and the board says how many queues lost ground.
Which chart should I use, final action or dates for filing?
Final action dates govern when a green card can be approved. Dates for filing govern when the adjustment application can be submitted, but only in months when USCIS says it’s honouring that chart, which it announces separately.

Visa bulletin through Nov 2026. How these figures are counted. Spotted an error? Tell us; every fix is dated in the corrections log.

The sources in full

Visa bulletin: travel.state.gov (the bulletin's tables, read in a browser; the site refuses automated clients) · data through Nov 2026 · monthly

What this data includes

Visa bulletin: Cutoff dates as the State Department published them each month. Nothing here is forecast.

Cite this page

The rules behind these numbers