Applying for Legal Permanent Residence in the Us and Understanding the Visa Bulletin

The US Visa Bulletin comes out monthly and you can sign up for it to be emailed to you (see the very bottom of the bulletin for how to do that).  It is also available at this link – https://travel.state.gov/content/travel/en/legal/visa-law0/visa-bulletin.html

It can be very confusing to understand the visa bulletin.  You have to know your priority date, your preference category, and then look under the chart which lists the country in which you were born (not your country of nationality, except for a few exceptions).  There is one chart that is a “final action” date and another chart for “dates for filing”.

When a foreign national is processing for legal permanent residence, that can be done either at a US Consulate abroad or by I-485 adjustment of status with USCIS inside the US.  If the foreign national is I-485 adjusting in the US, the priority date has to be current BOTH when the case is filed and when it is approved.  After the visa bulletin is issued every month, then within a short period of time, USCIS advises whether the foreign national can filed an I-485 adjustment based on the “final action” date or based on the “dates for filing”.  For consular processing, you use the “final action” date.

If you would like more information, look for the monthly “Chats with Charlie” on youtube.com.  Charlie Oppenheim is the person who is the Chief of the Immigrant Visa Control Unit.  These videos go into great detail about what is happening, and the link is towards the bottom of the visa bulletin under the heading – @TRAVELGOV BEGINS HOSTING MONTHLY YOUTUBE LIVE “CHATS WITH CHARLIE”