What is a Priority Date?

Where to find your priority date

Look at your I-797 receipt notice for one of these forms:

• I-140 — if you have an employment-based case (EB-1 through EB-5)
• I-130 — if you have a family-based case (F1 through F4)
• I-526 or I-526E — if you have an EB-5 investor case

The priority date is usually printed on the front of the notice, near the receipt date. For some employment-based cases that required a PERM labor certification first, the priority date is actually the date the PERM was filed, not the I-140.

What "priority date current" actually means

Your priority date is "current" when it is on or before the date listed for your category and country of chargeability in the latest Visa Bulletin. When that happens:

• A visa number is available for you
• You can file your I-485 adjustment of status, if you have not already
• If your I-485 is already filed, USCIS can finalize and approve your case
• You are eligible to receive a green card once the rest of the case is in order

If your priority date is after the cutoff date in the bulletin, you are still in line and have to wait.

Country of chargeability

Your country of chargeability is usually your country of birth, not your country of citizenship. The Visa Bulletin maintains separate dates for high-demand countries: India, China, Mexico, the Philippines, and (in some categories) El Salvador, Guatemala, and Honduras. Everyone else falls under "All Chargeability Areas Except Those Listed," commonly called "Worldwide."

If you were born in a high-demand country, you can sometimes use "cross-chargeability" based on a spouse's country of birth. That is a powerful planning lever, worth discussing with an attorney if it applies.

Why priority dates can move backwards

Priority dates do not always move forward. Sometimes they retrogress: the date moves backwards in the next bulletin. This can happen because:

• Demand spiked in a category or country
• The fiscal year is ending and the State Department is balancing allocations
• USCIS or DOS is recalibrating processing across categories

Retrogression does not invalidate your priority date. It just means you have to wait longer for the date to catch up to yours again.

How to track your priority date

Manually, you would open the latest Visa Bulletin at travel.state.gov every month, find your category and country, and compare the listed cutoff date to your own priority date.

With VisaWatch, you enter your priority date once. Each month, when the new Visa Bulletin drops, VisaWatch compares it against your date and sends a push notification the moment your category becomes current, or retrogresses. You can also browse the current bulletin on our public Visa Bulletin page.