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Visa bulletin Every line

EB-4, China

Where this line's cutoff stands, how it has moved a fiscal year at a time, and what USCIS counts behind it. From the State Department's bulletins, October 2014 to September 2026.

This month

Final action, September 2026
Dec 15, 2022
Dates for filing, September 2026
Jan 1, 2023
Across the archive
It moved 6 months of priority dates across 45 months of bulletins. It went backwards or shut 5 times, most recently in April 2025.

Final action decides when a green card can be approved; dates for filing, when USCIS allows it, decides when an I-485 can be filed. How the visa bulletin works.

Check your priority date

Is my priority date current?

And which way the cutoff has been moving. Cutoffs go backwards as well as forwards.

When a green card can actually be approved.

Reading the September 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

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.

October 2014: current, open to every priority dateNovember 2014: current, open to every priority dateDecember 2014: current, open to every priority dateJanuary 2015: current, open to every priority dateFebruary 2015: current, open to every priority dateMarch 2015: current, open to every priority dateApril 2015: current, open to every priority dateMay 2015: current, open to every priority dateJune 2015: current, open to every priority dateJuly 2015: current, open to every priority dateAugust 2015: current, open to every priority dateSeptember 2015: current, open to every priority dateOctober 2015: current, open to every priority dateNovember 2015: current, open to every priority dateDecember 2015: current, open to every priority dateJanuary 2016: current, open to every priority dateFebruary 2016: current, open to every priority dateMarch 2016: current, open to every priority dateApril 2016: current, open to every priority dateMay 2016: current, open to every priority dateJune 2016: current, open to every priority dateJuly 2016: current, open to every priority dateAugust 2016: current, open to every priority dateSeptember 2016: current, open to every priority dateOctober 2016: current, open to every priority dateNovember 2016: current, open to every priority dateDecember 2016: current, open to every priority dateJanuary 2017: current, open to every priority dateFebruary 2017: current, open to every priority dateMarch 2017: current, open to every priority dateApril 2017: current, open to every priority dateMay 2017: current, open to every priority dateJune 2017: current, open to every priority dateJuly 2017: current, open to every priority dateAugust 2017: current, open to every priority dateSeptember 2017: current, open to every priority dateOctober 2017: current, open to every priority dateNovember 2017: current, open to every priority dateDecember 2017: current, open to every priority dateJanuary 2018: current, open to every priority dateFebruary 2018: current, open to every priority dateMarch 2018: current, open to every priority dateApril 2018: current, open to every priority dateMay 2018: current, open to every priority dateJune 2018: current, open to every priority dateJuly 2018: current, open to every priority dateAugust 2018: current, open to every priority dateSeptember 2018: current, open to every priority dateOctober 2018: current, open to every priority dateNovember 2018: current, open to every priority dateDecember 2018: current, open to every priority dateJanuary 2019: current, open to every priority dateFebruary 2019: current, open to every priority dateMarch 2019: current, open to every priority dateApril 2019: current, open to every priority dateMay 2019: current, open to every priority dateJune 2019: current, open to every priority dateJuly 2019: current, open to every priority dateAugust 2019: current, open to every priority dateSeptember 2019: closed, no visa numbersOctober 2019: current, open to every priority dateNovember 2019: current, open to every priority dateDecember 2019: current, open to every priority dateJanuary 2020: current, open to every priority dateFebruary 2020: current, open to every priority dateMarch 2020: current, open to every priority dateApril 2020: current, open to every priority dateMay 2020: current, open to every priority dateJune 2020: current, open to every priority dateJuly 2020: current, open to every priority dateAugust 2020: current, open to every priority dateSeptember 2020: current, open to every priority dateOctober 2020: current, open to every priority dateNovember 2020: current, open to every priority dateDecember 2020: current, open to every priority dateJanuary 2021: current, open to every priority dateFebruary 2021: current, open to every priority dateMarch 2021: current, open to every priority dateApril 2021: current, open to every priority dateMay 2021: current, open to every priority dateJune 2021: current, open to every priority dateJuly 2021: current, open to every priority dateAugust 2021: current, open to every priority dateSeptember 2021: current, open to every priority dateOctober 2021: current, open to every priority dateNovember 2021: current, open to every priority dateDecember 2021: current, open to every priority dateJanuary 2022: current, open to every priority dateFebruary 2022: current, open to every priority dateMarch 2022: current, open to every priority dateApril 2022: current, open to every priority dateMay 2022: current, open to every priority dateJune 2022: current, open to every priority dateJuly 2022: current, open to every priority dateAugust 2022: current, open to every priority dateSeptember 2022: current, open to every priority dateOctober 2022: current, open to every priority dateNovember 2022: current, open to every priority dateDecember 2022: cutoff June 22, 2022January 2023: cutoff June 22, 2022February 2023: cutoff June 22, 2022March 2023: cutoff February 1, 2022April 2023: cutoff September 1, 2018May 2023: cutoff September 1, 2018June 2023: cutoff September 1, 2018July 2023: cutoff September 1, 2018August 2023: cutoff September 1, 2018September 2023: cutoff September 1, 2018October 2023: cutoff January 1, 2019November 2023: cutoff January 1, 2019December 2023: cutoff January 1, 2019January 2024: cutoff May 15, 2019February 2024: cutoff May 15, 2019March 2024: cutoff December 1, 2019April 2024: cutoff November 1, 2020May 2024: cutoff November 1, 2020June 2024: cutoff November 1, 2020July 2024: cutoff January 1, 2021August 2024: cutoff January 1, 2021September 2024: cutoff January 1, 2021October 2024: cutoff January 1, 2021November 2024: cutoff January 1, 2021December 2024: cutoff January 1, 2021January 2025: cutoff January 1, 2021February 2025: cutoff January 1, 2021March 2025: cutoff August 1, 2019April 2025: closed, no visa numbersMay 2025: closed, no visa numbersJune 2025: closed, no visa numbersJuly 2025: closed, no visa numbersAugust 2025: closed, no visa numbersSeptember 2025: closed, no visa numbersOctober 2025: cutoff July 1, 2020November 2025: cutoff July 1, 2020December 2025: cutoff September 1, 2020January 2026: cutoff January 1, 2021February 2026: cutoff January 1, 2021March 2026: cutoff July 15, 2021April 2026: cutoff July 15, 2022May 2026: cutoff July 15, 2022June 2026: cutoff July 15, 2022July 2026: cutoff September 15, 2022August 2026: cutoff October 15, 2022September 2026: cutoff December 15, 2022Cutoff date May 2018 Oct 2020 Mar 2023 Oct 2014 Oct 2018 Oct 2020 Sep 2022 Sep 2026Bulletin month
  • The cutoff that month
  • Dates that qualified
  • Current, open to every date
  • Closed, no visa numbers

From the 144 visa bulletins published between October 2014 and September 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 September 2026. Check the current bulletin before acting on any of it.

A fiscal year at a time

The final action cutoff in each year's first bulletin (October) against its last (September), the year the State Department plans visa numbers for. Newest first.

Fiscal year First bulletin Last bulletin Moved Steps back
FY2026 Jul 1, 2020 Dec 15, 2022 +897 days 0
FY2025 Jan 1, 2021 Unavailable not dated 2
FY2024 Jan 1, 2019 Jan 1, 2021 +731 days 0
FY2023 Current Sep 1, 2018 not dated 2
FY2022 Current Current not dated 0
FY2021 Current Current not dated 0
FY2020 Current Current not dated 0
FY2019 Current Unavailable not dated 1
FY2018 Current Current not dated 0
FY2017 Current Current not dated 0
FY2016 Current Current not dated 0
FY2015 Current Current not dated 0

What USCIS counts in this line

Approved petitions waiting for a visa number
1,093
as of June 2026, primary applicants
I-485s pending, visa number available
112 to 337
inventory of 2026-08-05
I-485s pending, waiting for a visa number
19 to 37
inventory of 2026-08-05

The approved count is USCIS's quarterly file and counts petitions, not people: no family members, and one person can hold more than one. The I-485 counts are USCIS's monthly inventory, where cells of 1 to 10 are withheld, so they're ranges. People getting their visa abroad aren't in the I-485 counts at all.

Alert

Email me when my cutoff moves

Pick your category and country. When a new bulletin changes that final-action cutoff, we email the change, before and after. Nothing on the months it doesn't move.

Double opt-in: you confirm by email first, so an address can't be signed up by someone who doesn't control it, and one click opts out. We send one confirmation every 10 minutes per address - if nothing lands, wait that long before trying again.

Visa bulletin: adoption.state.gov (the State Department's own page, served to scripts; travel.state.gov refuses them) · data through Sep 2026 · monthly Cutoff dates as the State Department published them each month. Nothing here is forecast.

Petitions awaiting a visa: USCIS approved employment-based petitions awaiting a visa (uscis.gov) · data through Jun 30, 2026 · quarterly Approved I-140, I-360 and I-526 petitions whose beneficiary is still waiting for a visa number, by preference and country of birth, as of the month USCIS states. Primary beneficiaries only, dependents excluded.

I-485 pending inventory has not refreshed in 54 days. It should update monthly, so the figures below are the last ones that arrived rather than the current ones. Source: USCIS employment-based I-485 inventory (uscis.gov) · data through Aug 5, 2026.

The rules behind these numbers

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