The short answer: In the September 2026 visa bulletin, all five family-based categories for mainland China caught up with the worldwide dates, and F4 moved forward 781 days in a single month (September 1, 2009 → October 22, 2011). If your priority date just became current, a one-year deadline has already started: you must file your DS-260 or I-485 before September 1, 2027, or your children lose their CSPA protection. Meanwhile, Guangzhou is only scheduling interviews for cases that became documentarily qualified in March 2025 — not being able to get an interview does not extend this deadline.
In the September 2026 visa bulletin, mainland China family-based dates caught up with the worldwide dates across the board. In all five categories — F1, F2A, F2B, F3 and F4 — mainland China and "All Chargeability Areas Except Those Listed" share the same cutoff date. F4 jumped from September 1, 2009 in the previous bulletin to October 22, 2011: 781 days in one move.
Family-sponsored
(China (mainland-born))This is the biggest jump in more than a decade. But "my date is current" and "I can go" are two different things, and between them sit two completely separate queues. What this article wants to make clear: the clock on one of them has started, and the other one has stopped.
If the visa bulletin moved forward, why do I suddenly need to hurry?
Priority date movement has a side effect many people don't know about: it locks in the age of accompanying children, and it starts a one-year deadline at the same time.
Under the Child Status Protection Act (CSPA), the formula is:
CSPA age = actual age on the date a visa becomes available − the time the immigrant petition was pending
The key phrase is "the date a visa becomes available." It is not the day you read the visa bulletin, and it is not the day of your interview. It is the 1st day of the month of the first bulletin in which the Final Action Dates chart (Chart A) passes your priority date. For families who fell inside this 781-day window, that date is September 1, 2026.
Locking in the age is good news. But something else starts on the same day:
You must "seek to acquire" permanent residence within one year of the visa becoming available — by filing a DS-260 (consular processing) or an I-485 (adjustment of status inside the US) — or you lose CSPA protection.
For people whose dates became current for the first time in September 2026, that date is September 1, 2027.
No matter how good the calculated age looks, missing this date wipes it out. And as explained below, right now is exactly when many people will be tempted to put off filing because "I can't get an interview anyway."
There was also a rule change in 2025
On August 8, 2025, USCIS updated how it calculates CSPA age: visa availability is determined by Chart A (Final Action Dates), for applications filed on or after August 15, 2025. Applications already pending before then are still handled under the old February 14, 2023 standard (which allowed use of the Dates for Filing chart, Chart B). People who could not file during the old policy period because of extraordinary circumstances can also try to have the old standard applied.
In practice: your date being current on Chart B does not mean the age is locked. Some families are calculating with Chart B dates and getting results that are too optimistic.
We turned this math into a tool. You only need to enter your priority date — the visa availability date is worked out automatically from 20 years of visa bulletin history, and the one-year deadline is calculated for you too:
For edge cases (filing around August 15, 2025, dates retrogressing, extraordinary-circumstances exceptions), please confirm with a lawyer — at that point it's no longer a math problem.
To see where this jump sits in history, compare the latest visa bulletin and the F4 category page; to estimate how much longer your overall wait will be, use the Wait Time Estimator.
My priority date is current — how long until my interview?
The priority date only decides whether a visa number can be issued to you. When you get an interview is a separate queue.
The State Department has an immigrant visa interview scheduling status tool that shows, for each embassy and consulate, which "documentarily qualified (DQ) month" it is currently scheduling interviews for. As of the September 9, 2026 update, Guangzhou shows:
| Category | DQ month currently being scheduled | Equivalent wait after DQ |
|---|---|---|
| Employment-based | August 2023 | About 3 years |
| Family preference | March 2025 | About 18 months |
| Immediate relatives | April 2026 | About 5 months |
In other words, even if your priority date became current this month and your documents are complete right away, at the current pace you are behind the March 2025 group.
What's even more worth noticing is which way this number is going. Here are the three readings we recorded:
| Reading date | Guangzhou family preference |
|---|---|
| July 8, 2026 | October 2025 |
| August 7, 2026 | August 2025 |
| September 9, 2026 | March 2025 |
This number is moving backward. A normal queue does not go backward.
Why is it going backward?
Starting in August 2026, the State Department paused immigrant visa interviews worldwide so consular officers could be trained on new public charge screening. A State Department official confirmed the pause to the media on August 25. Interviews that had already been scheduled have been receiving cancellation and rescheduling notices, and no resumption date has been announced so far.
To be clear: the State Department has not explained why the interview scheduling month went backward. The timing overlap above is our observation, not a cause-and-effect relationship stated by the government.
But one official statement is key: during the interview pause, processing before the interview continues as normal.
That explains something that looks contradictory. In the Chinese immigrant community, you see two kinds of posts at the same time: some showing off "NVC case completed in four days," "DQ in seven days," "done in nine days," and others asking "ten weeks since case completion and still no interview notice" or "seven months and nothing has moved."
Both are true. They are in two different queues: document review has stayed fast the whole time, while the interview queue has stopped.
What to do now, and what you can set aside for now
Act quickly on these (things you control):
- If your date became current this time, file your DS-260 or I-485 within one year. This is the only thing that is fully up to you and has a hard deadline.
- Get your documents complete and reach DQ as soon as possible. The interview queue is ordered by DQ month; being complete one month earlier moves you one slot ahead in line. The interview pause does not affect this step.
- If you have a child close to 21, calculate the CSPA age now — don't wait for the interview notice.
For background on why interviews can't be scheduled right now, see State Department Postpones Immigrant Visa Interviews Worldwide — that pause still has no timeline for resuming.
No need to panic about these (things you can't control):
- The interview scheduling month going backward doesn't mean something is wrong with your case; it's a problem with the whole queue.
- There is currently no general route to expedite an interview. A child about to age out is a situation where you can try requesting an expedite, but it has to go through a lawyer using the formal process, and success is not guaranteed.
In one sentence: the priority date moving forward gave you a one-year deadline, and the interview pause will not extend it. This is the easiest trap to fall into this time — putting off filing because you can't get an interview, and a year later losing CSPA protection itself.
Data sources
- September 2026 visa bulletin: US Department of State Visa Bulletin, Number 18, Volume XI
- CSPA calculation standard: USCIS policy update of August 8, 2025 (Chart A determines visa availability, applies from August 15, 2025); statutory basis: 8 U.S.C. §1153(h)
- Guangzhou interview scheduling: US Department of State immigrant visa interview scheduling status tool, updated September 9, 2026
- Interview pause: confirmed to the media by a State Department official on August 25, 2026; client alerts issued by several immigration law firms in late August. See also our article State Department Postpones Immigrant Visa Interviews Worldwide
This article is a compilation of data and an explanation of the rules, not legal advice. For your individual case, consult a licensed immigration attorney.
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