Visa Bulletin: Current Priority Dates (November 2026)
Published · Updated
This page tracks the current Visa Bulletin and is updated each month when the State Department publishes a new one. It currently reflects the Visa Bulletin for November 2026, the second bulletin of fiscal year 2027.
The Visa Bulletin decides when a green card applicant can move forward. If you have an approved petition in a preference category, your priority date has to become current before you can file for adjustment of status or be issued an immigrant visa. This page explains how to read the charts, then gives the current ones.
The one thing most people get wrong
There are two charts each month — Final Action Dates and Dates for Filing — and they are used for different things.
If you are filing Form I-485 (adjustment of status) inside the United States, USCIS decides each month which chart applies, and it can differ between family and employment categories. For November 2026, USCIS says:
- Family-sponsored: use the Dates for Filing chart.
- Employment-based: use the Dates for Filing chart.
That determination is republished monthly by USCIS at Adjustment of Status Filing Charts from the Visa Bulletin, and it is the page to check before you file — not this one, and not last month's.
Reading a chart: find your category in the left column, move across to the column for your country of birth (not citizenship, and not where you live now). If the cell says C, the category is current and you may file regardless of priority date. If it shows a date, you may act only if your priority date is earlier than that date. U means unavailable — no numbers are being issued at all.
Why this matters differently in South Florida
Only four chargeability areas are oversubscribed and get their own columns: China (mainland-born), India, Mexico and the Philippines. Everyone else falls under “All Chargeability Areas Except Those Listed.”
That first column is the one most South Florida applicants use. Cuba, Haiti, Venezuela, Colombia, Nicaragua, Brazil, Argentina and the Dominican Republic are all in it. If you were born in one of those countries, the separate India and China columns — which is where most of the alarming commentary about decade-long backlogs comes from — do not apply to you.
A current date does not override a travel ban. Since 1 January 2026 the State Department has suspended immigrant visa issuance at consulates for nationals of the countries named in the presidential travel-ban proclamations, including Venezuela, with no general exception for relatives of U.S. citizens (State Department). A priority date that is current on these charts still cannot produce a visa abroad for those nationals.
What changed from October
November is the second bulletin of fiscal year 2027, and the family categories jumped. In the “all areas” column — the one most South Florida applicants use — F1, F2B, F3 and F4 each moved forward a full year on both charts. On the employment side the final action dates advanced, but the Dates for Filing chart that USCIS designates for November barely moved: only Other Workers advanced, by one month.
| All areas except those listed | October 2026 | November 2026 |
|---|---|---|
| F1 Final Action / Dates for Filing | 22JAN20 / 01FEB20 | 22JAN21 / 01FEB21 |
| F2A Final Action | 22SEP26 | 22OCT26 |
| F2B Final Action / Dates for Filing | 22AUG19 / 01SEP19 | 22AUG20 / 01SEP20 |
| F3 Final Action / Dates for Filing | 22OCT14 / 01NOV14 | 22OCT15 / 01NOV15 |
| F4 Final Action / Dates for Filing | 22OCT11 / 01NOV11 | 22OCT12 / 01NOV12 |
| EB-2 Final Action | 01JAN25 | 01APR25 |
| EB-3 Final Action | 15MAY24 | 15JUN24 |
| Other Workers Final Action / Dates for Filing | 01JAN22 / 01JUN22 | 01JUN22 / 01JUL22 |
Mexico F1 and F3 final action dates moved two weeks, and F2A moved one month for every country. In the other columns, EB-1 China advanced one month and EB-3 China and India and Other Workers India advanced by two to three weeks.
Family-sponsored — Dates for Filing
The operative chart for family-based adjustment of status in November 2026.
| Family | All areas except those listed | China (mainland) | India | Mexico | Philippines |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| F1 | 01FEB21 | 01FEB21 | 01FEB21 | 01DEC08 | 22APR15 |
| F2A | C | C | C | C | C |
| F2B | 01SEP20 | 01SEP20 | 01SEP20 | 22MAR11 | 01OCT14 |
| F3 | 01NOV15 | 01NOV15 | 01NOV15 | 01DEC02 | 22OCT06 |
| F4 | 01NOV12 | 01NOV12 | 01FEB07 | 30APR01 | 22MAR09 |
F2A is current for every country on this chart. Spouses and minor children of green card holders can file for adjustment now regardless of priority date.
Family-sponsored — Final Action Dates
Used for immigrant visa issuance at a consulate, and for approving an already-filed I-485.
| Family | All areas except those listed | China (mainland) | India | Mexico | Philippines |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| F1 | 22JAN21 | 22JAN21 | 22JAN21 | 22SEP08 | 01NOV13 |
| F2A | 22OCT26 | 22OCT26 | 22OCT26 | 22APR26 | 22OCT26 |
| F2B | 22AUG20 | 22AUG20 | 22AUG20 | 15MAY10 | 01OCT13 |
| F3 | 22OCT15 | 22OCT15 | 22OCT15 | 15JUL01 | 22JUL06 |
| F4 | 22OCT12 | 22OCT12 | 15DEC06 | 22APR01 | 15MAY08 |
On F2A the bulletin adds a wrinkle: numbers exempt from the per-country limit go to applicants from all countries with priority dates earlier than 22APR26. Numbers subject to it go to applicants from every country except Mexico with dates from 22APR26 up to 22OCT26. All Mexican F2A numbers are exempt.
Employment-based — Dates for Filing
The operative chart for employment-based adjustment of status in November 2026.
| Employment | All areas except those listed | China (mainland) | India | Mexico | Philippines |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| EB-1 | C | 01JUL24 | 01JUL24 | C | C |
| EB-2 | 15MAR26 | 01JAN23 | 15JAN15 | 15MAR26 | 15MAR26 |
| EB-3 | 01AUG24 | 01APR24 | 15JAN15 | 01AUG24 | 01JAN24 |
| Other Workers | 01JUL22 | 01OCT20 | 15JAN15 | 01JUL22 | 01JUN22 |
| EB-4 | 01JAN25 | 01JAN25 | 01JAN25 | 01JAN25 | 01JAN25 |
| Religious Workers | 01JAN25 | 01JAN25 | 01JAN25 | 01JAN25 | 01JAN25 |
| EB-5 Unreserved | C | 01MAR21 | 01MAY24 | C | C |
| EB-5 Rural (20%) | C | C | C | C | C |
| EB-5 High Unemployment (10%) | C | C | C | C | C |
| EB-5 Infrastructure (2%) | C | C | C | C | C |
Employment-based — Final Action Dates
Used for immigrant visa issuance at a consulate, and for approving an already-filed I-485.
| Employment | All areas except those listed | China (mainland) | India | Mexico | Philippines |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| EB-1 | C | 01AUG23 | 01FEB23 | C | C |
| EB-2 | 01APR25 | 01OCT21 | 01NOV13 | 01APR25 | 01APR25 |
| EB-3 | 15JUN24 | 22JAN22 | 22JAN14 | 15JUN24 | 15AUG23 |
| Other Workers | 01JUN22 | 01OCT19 | 22JAN14 | 01JUN22 | 01JAN22 |
| EB-4 | 15DEC22 | 15DEC22 | 15DEC22 | 15DEC22 | 15DEC22 |
| Religious Workers | 15DEC22 | 15DEC22 | 15DEC22 | 15DEC22 | 15DEC22 |
| EB-5 Unreserved | C | 01DEC16 | 01DEC23 | C | C |
| EB-5 Rural (20%) | C | C | C | C | C |
| EB-5 High Unemployment (10%) | C | C | C | C | C |
| EB-5 Infrastructure (2%) | C | C | C | C | C |
No category is marked U (unavailable) this month. The October bulletin noted that Congress (H.R. 6500) extended the religious-worker category, which shares the EB-4 dates, through 11 December 2026.
The numbers behind the charts
The November bulletin gives the family-sponsored preference limit as 226,000 and the employment-based worldwide level as at least 140,000, with a per-country cap of 25,620 (7%) and a dependent-area cap of 7,320 (2%). The per-country cap is why India and China have separate columns: it applies equally to every country regardless of population, so high-demand countries queue longer.
Allocations in this bulletin were made against demand received by 5 October 2026. That lag is normal and explains why the charts can look out of step with what applicants are experiencing.
What to do with this
- Find your priority date — it is on your I-797 approval notice for the underlying petition, and for most employment cases it is the date the labor certification or petition was filed.
- Use your country of birth, not your citizenship. Cross-chargeability to a spouse's country of birth is sometimes available and can matter a great deal if one spouse was born in an oversubscribed country.
- Check the USCIS chart page before filing, because which chart applies changes month to month.
- Do not file on a date you have read here without confirming it against the current bulletin. This page is updated monthly, but a bulletin can be superseded between updates.
Getting help
Priority date and chargeability questions are where do-it-yourself green card cases most often go wrong, because the mistake is invisible until a filing is rejected or a petition ages out. If you want representation in South Florida, our directory lists green card lawyers in Miami, family immigration lawyers and business immigration lawyers, or you can browse all listed immigration attorneys and immigration lawyers in Miami by location.
Primary sources
- U.S. Department of State — Visa Bulletin for November 2026
- U.S. Department of State — The Visa Bulletin (current month)
- USCIS — Adjustment of Status Filing Charts from the Visa Bulletin
- USCIS — Visa Availability and Priority Dates
This page summarises a government publication and is general information, not legal advice. The Visa Bulletin changes monthly and categories can retrogress or become unavailable without warning. Always confirm against the current bulletin linked above, and speak to a licensed immigration attorney about your own case.