Family Visa Bulletin
Analysis & Predictions

The 'Final Action Date' (F.A.D.) that applies to you depends on your 'country of chargeability' (All Countries, Mexico, the Philippines, and India for F4) and your 'immigration category' (F1, F2A, F2B, F3, and F4).

Your 'country of chargeability' is generally the country where you were born. If you were not born in Mexico, the Philppines or India, then your country of chargeability is 'All Countries'. You can read the FAQ 'What is your country of chargeability?' if you are in doubt.

Your 'immigration category' depends on the sponsor's legal status (U.S. Citizen or Green Card Holder), the family relationship between applicant and sponsor (spouse, child, or sibling), the age of the applicant (20 years or younger, 21 years or older), and the marital status of the applicant (married, or not married).

Your country of chargeability is where you were born, not where you currently reside. For example, applicants who were born in the Philippines but who currently hold a French passport will be 'charged' to the Philippines, not France.

There are however instances where applicants can be 'charged' to a country that is not the country where they were born. This matters only to applicants who were born in Mexico, the Philippines and F4-India applicants:

• Spouses who are immigrating together, but were born in different countries, can pick the most beneficial country of chargeability
• F2A-Spouses whose lawful permanent resident spouse was born in a different country may use the lawful permanent resident spouse’s country of chargeability, if more favorable
• Children can cross-charge to a country of chargeability of the parent he or she is immigrating with or following to join
• If a person is born in country where neither of his or her parents had citizenship or permanent residence, the person’s country of chargeability can be the country of either of his parents’ birth.

Your immigration category depends on the sponsor's legal status (U.S. Citizen or Green Card Holder), the family relationship between applicant and sponsor (spouse, child, or sibling), the age of the applicant (20 years or younger, 21 years or older), and the marital status of the applicant (married, or not married):

The Visa Bulletin that is in effect for a calendar month is the one that is 'current'. In other words, during the calendar month of October, the dates of the October Visa Bulletin apply. The dates of the November Visa Bulletin do not apply in October, even if the November Visa Bulletin is released in early October.

If your immigration category is F1, F2A, F2B, F3, F4 and if you live in the United States and you are going through Adjustment of Status, then you can use the Filing Date to determine whether you are allowed to file Form I-485.

Less than 2% of all Family Green Card applicants can use the Filing Date (15,000 out of 800,000 in Fiscal Year 2016). The main reasons the Filing Date is not used are:

• Filing Date cannot be used by applicants going through Consular Processing
• Most applicants going through Adjustment of Status are Immediate Relatives, not 'preference' applicants who have to maintain valid U.S. status for extended periods of time.

Unfortunately no. The dates listed in the Visa Bulletin are the first date for which a Green Card number is not available. For example, if the Final Action Date is Jan 1st 2016, applicants with a Priority Date of Jan 1st 2016 are not 'current' when compared to the Final Action Date.

In theory yes, in reality no.

The Welcome Letter is sent by the National Visa Center (NVC) to family applicants under a 'preference' classification (F1, F2A, F2B, F3, F4) going through Consular Processing. Welcome Letters contain information that enable applicants who have an approved I-130 to file their Green Card Application.

So Filing Dates and Welcome Letters have the same purpose: determining when applicants can file their Green Card application whether through Form I-485 (adjustment of status) or Form DS-260 (Consular Processing). In theory, they should be the same. Filing Dates should simply 'expose' when applicants are within 12 months of their Final Action Dates becoming current. That way the NVC could make sure that Green Card applications are 'interview-ready' and schedule the Interview as soon as the Final Action Date becomes current.

Unfortunately, the reality is that generally Filing Dates do not become current within 12 months, and that Welcome Letters are generally sent when the Final Action Date is current, or about to become current.

That is why Immigration Planner releases Predictions about Final Action Dates, and not Filing Dates.

It depends. In order to see what our latest conclusions are, please read our post dedicated to this issue.

The process of scheduling the interview is initiated by U.S. immigration agencies when the following two requirements are met:

• The applicant's Priority Date is 'current' when compared to the relevant 'Final Action Date'
• The applicant's Green Card Case is 'interview-ready' (also called 'case complete' or 'documentarily qualified', meaning that all the proper Forms, Evidence, and Fees necessary to make a decision on the Green Card Application have been received by U.S. Immigration Agencies).

Being 'current' means that the applicant's Priority Date (which is when Form I-130 was filed) is 'earlier' than the relevant Final Action Date. If the relevant Final Action Date is January 1st 2018, then applicants with a Priority Date 'earlier' (that is up to December 31st 2016) are said to be current.
The relevant Final Action Date refers to the Final Action Date that applies to applicants based on their preference classification (F1, F2A, F2B, F3, F4) and countries of birth (Mexico, All Countries, ...).

The month when the applicant's Priority Date is current, U.S. Immigration agencies look for an available Interview slot in the month after next (if the applicant's priority date becomes current in January, then they will start looking for slots in March). How long applicants wait depend on how busy the U.S. Consulate or USCIS Field office is.

Here are some of the things Immigration Planner’s tools help you think through while you wait:

1. Maintaining your eligibility to your Green Card category. Things might for instance change if you get married!
2. For applicants living in the United States, maintaining your eligibility to the adjustment of status process
3. Establishing if you will need a waiver, and getting ready if you do
4. Anticipate if there is a risk for your children to ‘age-out’ and whether the Child Status Protection Act (CSPA) might protect them
5. Anticipate whether the sponsor becoming a U.S Citizen could be favorable, or would lead you to ‘opt-out’ of your new immigration category
6. Be prepared to file the rest of the Green Card application as soon as U.S. immigration agencies allow it.

'Documentarily qualified', 'Case complete', 'pre-processing', 'interview-ready' all mean that U.S. immigration agencies have received all the Forms, Evidence, and Fees necessary to make a decision on the Green Card application. This is an administrative assessment that all the Forms and Documents have been filed because when they are not, a Request for Evidence is issued.

For 'preference' applicants who have a 'current' Priority Date when compared to the Final Action Date, the next step depends on the Green Card Process:

• For applicants going through Consular Processing, the National Visa Center (NVC) will transfer the Green Card application to a U.S. Embassy or Consulate abroad (outside the United States)
• For applicants going through Adjustment of Status, the National Benefit Center (NBC) will transfer the Green Card application to a USCIS Field Office (inside the United States)

The decision about the Green Card application will be made by the Consular Officer (a Department of State employee) for Consular Processing, or the Adjudicating Officer (a USCIS employee) for Adjustment of Status.