Final Action Date
15 Jul 2014
The date USCIS / DOS can approve an immigrant visa or adjust status on. This is the date that 'unlocks' final approval.
H-1B Compass
Build my planThis is an information-only tool, not legal advice. You are responsible for your decisions. When in doubt, consult an immigration attorney.
Free · live from travel.state.gov · updates monthly
Where am I in the green-card line?
Pick your preference category and country of chargeability. We show the current Final Action Date (when USCIS can approve) and Dates for Filing (when USCIS lets you file the I-485). Add your priority date to see months behind cutoff. Pulled live from the official Visa Bulletin; falls back to a cached copy if travel.state.gov is unreachable.
May 2026 Visa Bulletin
Pulled live from travel.state.gov.
Date for Filing
15 Jan 2015
The date USCIS lets you file the I-485 adjustment-of-status application (or DOS lets you file DS-260). Earlier than Final Action — you can prep the file but don't get approved yet.
How to read the Visa Bulletin
Two charts, one bulletin.Each month DOS publishes both a “Final Action Dates” chart and a “Dates for Filing” chart. Final Action is the date at which USCIS / DOS can actually approve a green card. Dates for Filing is the date at which they let you file the application — earlier than approval. USCIS announces each month which chart they’re accepting AOS filings under.
“C” means current.No backlog, file immediately. “U” means unavailable — usually because the annual quota is exhausted; reopens at the next fiscal year (October 1).
Dates can move backward.Retrogression happens when DOS overestimates available visa numbers earlier in the year and pulls back to stay within the cap. Just because India EB-2 was “15JAN13” last month doesn’t mean it can’t go back to “01JAN13” this month.
Single-month movement is a bad predictor. India EB-2 has moved as little as 1 day and as much as several months in a single bulletin cycle. The CATO Institute and AILA have both published estimates for the actual wait (often 50+ years for India EB-2 given current demand) — these are useful for life-planning, not for single-month timing.
What you can do while waiting. If your DFF is current you can file the I-485 to unlock H-4 EAD for your spouse, AP for re-entry, and portability under AC21 §106. The personal timeline tool sequences this against your H-1B grace deadlines.
Why this matters for laid-off H-1B workers
The visa-bulletin date determines when you can lock in portability under AC21 §106 (job change without starting over) and when your spouse can get H-4 EAD via a pending I-485. If your priority date is current under the Dates-for-Filing chart, filing the I-485 right now is usually the highest-value move during your grace window — even if final approval still waits 5-10+ years.
India / China backlog reality
India EB-2 currently has a wait estimated by CATO at 50+ years if demand stays flat. EB-1 and EB-2 are typically the only realistic paths if you’re mid-career and India-born; consider the EB-1A / NIW scorer and the NIW evidence builder to see if you can move sideways into a faster lane.
About the data
We pull the current bulletin live from travel.state.gov. If the live fetch fails, we fall back to a cached copy and clearly mark it as such. Always verify against the source link before making a filing decision.