Updated November 11, 2026

EB-2 visa priority date: how it works, how to check it and when you can file

Your EB-2 visa priority date is your place in line for a green card. Under USCIS rules, it is the date the Department of Labor accepts your labor certification application for processing, or the date USCIS accepts your Form I-140 if you do not need a labor certification, such as a National Interest Waiver. Employment-based preference visas are limited by statute to 140,000 per year, so you can file Form I-485 or complete your green card only when your priority date is earlier than the cut-off date in the State Department Visa Bulletin.

What is an EB-2 priority date and how is it set?

The U.S. Department of State uses your priority date to determine your exact place in the immigrant visa queue. Employment-based preference visas are numerically limited to a statutory baseline of 140,000 visas per year, and family-sponsored preference visas are limited to 226,000 per year. A waiting list forms whenever annual demand in a preference category or country exceeds the available visa numbers.

How your EB-2 priority date is established depends on whether your petition requires a permanent labor certification from the Department of Labor (DOL). You must also meet all job and degree requirements specified on the labor certification as of that priority date.

If your EB-2 relies on a labor certification, your employer must file Form I-140 with USCIS before the 180-day validity period on the certified Form ETA-9089 expires. If the 180th day falls on a Saturday, Sunday, or legal holiday, USCIS accepts the petition if it receives it by the next business day. Petitions filed with an expired labor certification are rejected.

How your EB-2 priority date is established

Where to find your priority date and check your place in line

Once a petition is filed on your behalf, you can find your priority date printed directly on Form I-797, Notice of Action, which USCIS issues for your Form I-140 petition. When you later apply to adjust status, a USCIS officer verifies that priority date by reviewing your actual immigrant petition or permanent labor certification application in your file.

To check your place in the queue each month, compare the priority date on your Form I-797 against the monthly State Department Visa Bulletin. Your wait depends on three factors: the supply and demand for immigrant visas, the percentage limits allotted to each country of chargeability, and the number of visas allocated to the EB-2 preference category.

Look up the row for Employment-Based 2nd preference and the column for your country of chargeability, which is usually your country of birth rather than your country of citizenship. The chart will show one of three things:

• A specific cut-off date (for example, 15DEC07): A visa is available to you only if your priority date is earlier than the cut-off date shown for your category and country.
• C (Current): Demand is less than supply for your category and country. Immigrant visa numbers are immediately available to all qualified adjustment of status and overseas applicants in that category and country.
• U (Unavailable): Immigrant visa numbers are temporarily unavailable to all applicants in that preference category or country of chargeability.

Final Action Dates vs. Dates for Filing: which chart to use

Every monthly Visa Bulletin publishes two separate charts for employment-based immigrants: the Application Final Action Dates chart and the Dates for Filing Applications chart. The Dates for Filing chart indicates when applicants outside the United States should be notified to assemble and submit documents to the National Visa Center.

If you are inside the United States and want to file Form I-485, Application to Register Permanent Residence or Adjust Status, you cannot simply pick the more favorable chart. Each month, within one week of the State Department publishing the Visa Bulletin, USCIS posts on its Adjustment of Status Filing Charts page which chart employment-based applicants must use.

When USCIS determines that there are more immigrant visas available for the fiscal year than there are known applicants, it authorizes employment-based applicants to use the Dates for Filing chart. Otherwise, you must use the Application Final Action Dates chart. For example, for the November 2026 Visa Bulletin, USCIS designated the Dates for Filing chart for all employment-based preference categories. If a category is marked Current on the Final Action Dates chart, or if the Final Action cut-off date is later than the date on the Dates for Filing chart, applicants in that category may file using the Final Action Dates chart during that month.

Keep a critical rule in mind: to adjust status to lawful permanent resident, an immigrant visa must be immediately available to you both at the time you file Form I-485 and at the time USCIS makes a final decision to approve your application. Even if USCIS lets you file your Form I-485 early under the Dates for Filing chart, USCIS cannot grant final approval until your priority date is earlier than the cut-off date in the Application Final Action Dates chart.

How USCIS uses the two Visa Bulletin charts

How to use cross-chargeability if your country is backlogged

Your visa is normally charged to your country of birth. If you were born in a country with an oversubscribed EB-2 queue, you may be able to use your spouse's country of birth instead through a rule in the USCIS Policy Manual called cross-chargeability.

The USCIS Policy Manual sets these rules for cross-chargeability and derivative family members:

• Spouses can cross-charge to each other: The principal EB-2 applicant may charge their visa to the derivative spouse's country of birth, and the derivative spouse may charge their visa to the principal's country of birth.
• Children can cross-charge to either parent: Derivative unmarried children under 21 (or covered by the Child Status Protection Act) may cross-charge to either parent's more favorable country of chargeability.
• Parents can never use a child's country: A principal applicant or derivative spouse may never cross-charge to their child's country of birth.
• Both spouses must adjust together if the principal uses the spouse's country: When the principal EB-2 applicant uses the derivative spouse's country of chargeability, USCIS treats both as principal applicants (one conferring immigrant status and the other conferring the more favorable chargeability), and the officer must approve both adjustment applications at the same time.
• Worked example created by our team: Suppose you are the principal EB-2 beneficiary born in a country with a multi-year cut-off date, and your spouse was born in a country where EB-2 is Current (or has a cut-off date later than your priority date). If you and your spouse are both eligible to adjust status and file your Form I-485 packages together with a notation requesting cross-chargeability, USCIS keeps your files together in a family pack and charges both green cards to your spouse's country of birth.

Concurrent filing, job portability and what to prepare when your date is current

If you are physically present in the United States and your priority date is current on the chart USCIS designates for the month (or would be immediately current upon petition approval), you can file Form I-485 concurrently with your Form I-140, or file Form I-485 while your Form I-140 is still pending. Concurrent filing is not available for consular processing overseas because Form I-140 is filed with USCIS while immigrant visa applications abroad are processed through the State Department.

When you file Form I-485 and Form I-140 together by mail, USCIS instructs you not to combine the supporting documents for the two forms. Assemble each form package separately. If you file Form I-485 after April 1, 2024, you must pay separate additional filing fees if you also choose to file Form I-765 for an Employment Authorization Document (EAD) or Form I-131 for an Advance Parole travel document. Leaving the United States while your Form I-485 is pending without an Advance Parole document generally results in abandoning your application.

Under section 204(j) of the Immigration and Nationality Act, your approved Form I-140 remains valid even if you change jobs or employers, as long as your Form I-485 has been pending for 180 days or more. To use this job portability, you must submit Form I-485 Supplement J showing that your new permanent job offer is in the same or a similar occupational classification as the position in your original petition.

Use this checklist from our team, built from USCIS's required initial evidence rules, to assemble your principal EB-2 Form I-485 package once your priority date is current:

• Form I-485 properly completed and signed with an original handwritten signature (not typed, stamped, or pasted from an image).
• Copy of Form I-797 (Approval or Receipt Notice) for your Form I-140, unless you are filing Form I-485 concurrently with Form I-140.
• Form I-485 Supplement J confirming that the job offered in Form I-140 remains valid, unless you are filing concurrently with Form I-140 or adjusting under a National Interest Waiver without a job offer (self-petitioners instead submit a signed statement confirming intent to work in the specified occupational field).
• Form I-693, Report of Immigration Medical Examination and Vaccination Record, completed by a civil surgeon. You must submit Form I-693 (or a required partial Form I-693) with your Form I-485 or USCIS may reject your application.
• Proof of inspection and admission or parole and continuous maintenance of lawful status since arriving in the United States (or evidence of exemption under INA 245(k)), including copies of your Form I-94 Arrival/Departure Record, passport pages with nonimmigrant visas, and admission or parole stamps.
• Copy of your birth certificate, copy of a government-issued photo ID, and two passport-style photographs.

Retaining and porting an earlier priority date, or transferring your I-485 basis

If you change employers or move between preference categories, you do not automatically lose your place in line. Under the USCIS Policy Manual and 8 CFR 204.5(e), if you are the beneficiary of multiple approved employment-based petitions filed under the 1st (EB-1), 2nd (EB-2), or 3rd (EB-3) preference categories, you are entitled to the earliest priority date among them. You typically alert the USCIS officer that you are using an earlier priority date by including a copy of the Form I-797 approval notice for the earlier petition in your adjustment application packet.

You cannot retain an earlier EB-1, EB-2, or EB-3 priority date to support a later petition if USCIS revoked the approval of the earlier petition for any of these four reasons:

• The earlier petition was approved in error.
• The Department of Labor revoked the labor certification associated with the petition.
• USCIS or the State Department invalidated the labor certification associated with the petition.
• The petition was revoked due to fraud or the willful misrepresentation of a material fact.

Where to send a written request to transfer the underlying basis of a pending Form I-485

What happens during EB-2 visa retrogression?

Visa retrogression happens when more people apply for a visa in a preference category or country than there are visas available for that month. A priority date that is current one month may no longer meet the cut-off date the next month, or the cut-off date on the Visa Bulletin may move backward to an earlier date. Retrogression typically happens toward the end of the federal fiscal year as visa issuance approaches the annual category or per-country limits.

When the new federal fiscal year begins on October 1, a fresh supply of visa numbers becomes available. Usually, though not always, that October 1 allocation returns the cut-off dates to where they were before retrogression.

If you properly filed your Form I-485 while a visa was available, and your priority date retrogresses before USCIS finishes your case, USCIS does not reject or deny your application for retrogression. Instead, USCIS processes the case up to the point of final approval and holds your Form I-485 in abeyance until a visa number becomes available again under the Application Final Action Dates chart:

• Cases that do not require an in-person interview are held at the USCIS Service Center where you initially filed your Form I-485.
• Employment-based cases that have completed a required interview and other processing steps (including security checks) at a field office are transferred to and held at the National Benefits Center (NBC) until a visa number is available.

Work authorization and travel while your case is in abeyance

While your Form I-485 is held in abeyance during retrogression, you remain eligible to apply for work authorization using Form I-765 and advance parole travel permission using Form I-131.

Keep your address current with USCIS within 10 days of any move by filing Form AR-11 online, because USCIS may send a Request for Evidence or notice to update expired security checks once your priority date becomes current again. If you have not heard from USCIS within 30 days of your priority date becoming available again, you can contact the USCIS Contact Center at 800-375-5283.

What the officer checks at an EB-2 adjustment of status interview

When your priority date is current on the Application Final Action Dates chart and your Form I-485 reaches an interview or final review, the USCIS officer follows the five-step adjudicative review in Volume 7, Part A, Chapter 6 of the USCIS Policy Manual: verifying the underlying Form I-140 basis, determining ongoing eligibility, verifying visa availability, determining admissibility, and deciding whether favorable discretion is warranted.

Prepare for questions on these specific points from your file:

• Whether you met all requirements as of the priority date: For an advanced degree position, you must have held the U.S. advanced degree (or foreign equivalent, or a bachelor's degree plus 5 years of progressive post-baccalaureate experience in the specialty) and met all requirements for the position on the date the permanent labor certification was filed. Have your degree records and employer experience letters ready.
• Whether the offered job still exists (or meets INA 204(j) portability): For an employer-sponsored EB-2, the officer verifies that the Form I-140 remains valid, the employer is a viable business with the financial means to employ you, and you intend to accept the offered job (or a same or similar job under Form I-485 Supplement J after 180 days). For an NIW self-petitioner, be ready to explain how you continue to pursue the proposed endeavor in your occupational field.
• Your priority date retention or cross-chargeability basis: If you ported an earlier priority date from a prior EB-1, EB-2, or EB-3 petition, bring the Form I-797 approval notices for both petitions. If you are using cross-chargeability to your spouse's country of birth, bring your marriage certificate and both birth certificates.
• Continuous lawful status and admissibility: Be ready to confirm every entry, Form I-94 record, and nonimmigrant status since your arrival, along with your Form I-693 medical exam.

Practice example

You changed employers while your Form I-485 was waiting for your EB-2 priority date to become current. How does your new role compare to the position on your approved Form I-140, and when did you make the move?

A strong, honest answer states the exact date you changed employers, confirms that your Form I-485 had been pending for 180 days or more, and explains in plain terms how your new job duties, occupational classification, and salary match the position certified on your original Form I-140. Bring your filed Form I-485 Supplement J (or have a completed Supplement J ready to hand over), your Form I-797 approval notice showing your EB-2 priority date, your Form I-485 receipt notice proving the 180-day timeline under INA 204(j), and a current employment verification letter or pay stubs from your new employer.

Under the USCIS Policy Manual, the officer must verify the continuing validity of the underlying Form I-140 petition or confirm that you qualify for job portability under INA 204(j) after your Form I-485 has been pending for at least 180 days in a same or similar occupational classification.

This is interview practice, not legal advice. For questions about your own case, talk to an immigration attorney. Visaful is not affiliated with the U.S. government or the Department of State.