We will look more details below, let’s dive into the dates of filing and final action dates and how they move. Historical counts of Denials, Abandonments and withdrawals.ĭepending on how the above three numbers vary, you would see movement of the priority dates.Pending Adjustment of Status applicants count received from USCIS.Qualified Immigrant Visa Applicants count received from US Consulates.They will predict the number of Green Cards available for the upcoming months, until the end of fiscal year, based on below three data points. But for your easy understanding, we have tried to simplify it as below.įirst, when a fiscal year starts in October, Visa Office divides the total annual available Green Card numbers into monthly allotments. The process of prediction is pretty complicated. Also, they get the number of pending applications of adjustment of status from USCIS. Every month the Visa Office gets a report of total number of immigrant visa (Green Card) applicants from all US consulates & Embassies across the globe. The Visa Office (VO) that is part of US Department of State (DOS) handles the green card numbers reporting and prediction. How are Green Card or Immigrant Visas count Reported, Predicted? This will help you better understand how the “Dates for Filing” and “Final Action Dates” movement in next sections. Now that you have some background on why two dates, next we need to understand how the Green Cards numbers are reported, collated and further predicted. These were all introduced as part of Obama plan for modernizing legal immigration in 2015 It will help them issue maximum number of Green Cards per year, without wasting them, as per Congress guidance. Also, with two dates, US Dept of State would be able to more accurately predict the demand and supply of Green Card numbers. US Department of State(DOS) introduced the concept of two dates to align procedures of Immigrant Visas (Green Card) at US Consulates abroad with USCIS adjustment of status application procedures. There was only one chart and one date, which was just called priority date.
If you check any of the previous editions of Visa Bulletin like September 2015 Visa Bulletin, you would not find two charts or two dates listed. US Department of State introduced the concept of “Final Action Dates” and “Dates for Filing” only from October 2015 Visa Bulletin. Background for Dates for Filing & Final Action Dates If you are new to the Green Card process and have not heard some of the terms like country caps, priority dates or numerical limits, read Green Card Numerical Limits, Country Caps, Priority Date to get an idea. Why do “Dates for Filing” and “Final Action Dates” fluctuate? Retrogress?