You Can File I-485 on Chart B in October: 7 Common Questions on Moving Cities, Silent Law Firms, EB-2 vs EB-3, Medical Exams and Trips Home

01 My PERM is in city A, but I moved to city B. Can I still file?

The rules first

First, a PERM is tied to a worksite. A labor certification is valid only for the particular job, the person named, and the "area of intended employment" (20 CFR 656.30(c)(2)). There is no fixed mileage; it generally means normal commuting distance, roughly the same metro area. Moving to another state almost certainly takes you out of it.

Second, I-485 looks at your future job. In USCIS's words, at the time of filing the adjustment application, "the original petitioner must have had the intent to employ the beneficiary, and the beneficiary must also have intended to undertake the employment upon adjustment" (USCIS Policy Manual, Vol. 7, Part E, Ch. 5).

In other words, the rule cares about whether you will do the PERM job, at that location, after you get the green card. Where you work today is not the direct test.

Third, after 180 days you can change. This is AC21: with an approved I-140 and an I-485 pending 180 days or more, you can move to a job in the same or a similar occupation. USCIS says "the new job offer may be through the same employer that filed the petition or a different employer," so a different location with the same company counts. You report it with Form I-485 Supplement J.

So do you really have to move back?

Someone in a group said you "definitely have to relocate back to the original city to file." Someone else asked whether that means your home address or your job.

It means your job, not your address. The requirement is a genuine intent to take that job. Many corporate law firms ask employees to move back to the PERM city and work there for a while before filing, or at least to have a concrete plan to go back. That is how the firm makes the intent provable and lowers risk; it is not a rule that says "you must live there for X months."

So the real question is: after you get the green card, will you work at the PERM location?

• Yes (for example a temporary assignment or temporary remote work): you can usually file on the current PERM, but confirm with your company's attorney and keep documentation.
• No (you have settled in the new city and the company does not expect you back): the current PERM probably cannot support that intent. The usual fix is a new PERM and I-140 for the new location. An approved I-140 lets you keep your original priority date, but you go through the process again.
• Not sure: that is exactly the conversation to have with your attorney.

What people report in forums

The following are people's own accounts, not verified decisions.

• One reader's PERM was in a Midwestern state while they worked fully remote from another state. Their attorney asked them to move back to the PERM state for about 6 months before filing I-485.
• Another reader changed cities within the same company, and the company filed a new PERM for the new location. The new PERM listed the company's original address plus "remote work allowed," not their home address.
• A third reader's office was closing. Their attorney said short-term remote work was fine as long as they could return to that office; if the company would no longer have an office in that city, a new PERM was needed.

Three people, three outcomes. The difference is whether "I will go back" is actually true. One case does not make a rule, but these point the same way.

A popular theory: "stay at the PERM location from approval until 180 days after filing"

Some forum users reason that you only need to work at the PERM location from the day I-485 is approved until it has been 180 days since filing, and that if approval takes longer than 180 days, you can simply move with Supplement J.

It captures part of the AC21 logic, but it is a user's calculation; USCIS has no such rule. The weak point is that your intent at filing must be genuine. If you file already planning not to go back and are only counting days, the risk is yours if anyone asks. Treat it as a question for your attorney, not as a rule.

One path not to take: rent an apartment, change your address, don't actually move

A forum user asked whether they could rent an apartment in the PERM city and change their company, bank and credit card addresses without actually moving. One reply said: "Yes, don't tell anyone, including your lawyer."

We clearly advise against this.

• A willful misrepresentation in an immigration application is its own ground of inadmissibility, and it is permanent (INA 212(a)(6)(C)(i)). That is far worse than filing a few months later.
• Most people in this position are on H-1B, which is also tied to a worksite. Working in a different metro area already requires an H-1B amendment.
• State taxes, company records and login locations all show where you actually work.

A specific case: my H-1B is moving back to the original city, but the LCA is still pending. Can I file I-485 first?

One reader was already transferring their H-1B back to the original city, but the Labor Condition Application (LCA, which must be filed with the Department of Labor before an H-1B worksite change) was still pending.

The I-485 itself does not require your current H-1B worksite to match the PERM; it looks at the future-job intent described above. So in principle you do not have to wait for the H-1B amendment. Many firms still prefer to line up the H-1B first so the records match. That is the firm's risk management, so follow your own firm's plan, and ask them directly: "Can I file I-485 now and do the H-1B amendment in parallel?"

02 My company's lawyers haven't contacted me. Should I chase them?

Yes, and do it now.

Large companies usually hand immigration cases to an outside law firm that works in batches. When the bulletin moves, hundreds or thousands of employees become eligible at once, and the firm sends questionnaires and collects documents one by one. Waiting to be contacted can cost you weeks. More importantly, USCIS can switch back to Chart A any month, so Chart B in October does not guarantee Chart B in November.

What to do:

1. Email your company's immigration contact (the HR immigration team, or your case contact at the law firm) with your priority date, category and I-140 status, and say that Chart B is current in October and you would like to file I-485 this month.
2. Ask three things:
   • Does the company allow filing under Chart B? Some companies wait for Chart A.
   • What documents do they need from you, and by when?
   • If your worksite no longer matches the PERM (see above), how will they handle it?
3. Start preparing in parallel: passport, notarial birth certificate, marriage certificate, and the medical exam, which takes the longest (see below).

03 EB-3 is so far ahead of EB-2. Should I downgrade?

For China mainland in October, EB-3 Chart B is April 1, 2024 and EB-2 Chart B is January 1, 2023, more than a year apart. If you are EB-2 with a priority date between 2023 and March 2024, you cannot file under EB-2 this month, but you could under EB-3.

A downgrade needs your employer to file an EB-3 I-140, and you can keep your priority date. There are several moving parts: whether your employer will do it, whether you can switch back, and which Chart A moves first. We covered it in detail here:

https://visa.careerengine.us/en/cases/eb2-eb3-downgrade-2026-09

For how the October bulletin moved overall and whether Chart A will catch up, see our analysis:

https://visa.careerengine.us/en/analysis/visa-bulletin-2026-10

04 How long does Chart B usually stay open?

USCIS decides the chart month by month. Nobody can promise anything, and we do not predict November. But we have the record for all 133 months from October 2015 to now. Below is every run in which employment-based filings used Chart B (Dates for Filing), and each row links to the USCIS page of that time so you can check it:

Run	Months on Chart B	Length	Back to Chart A
1	October 2015 – November 2015	2 months	December 2015
2	October 2016 – December 2016*	3 months	January 2017
3	October 2018 – January 2019	4 months	February 2019
4	October 2019 – March 2020	6 months	April 2020
5	October 2020 – December 2020	3 months	January 2021
6	October 2021 – May 2022	8 months	June 2022
7	October 2022 – March 2023	6 months	April 2023
8	October 2023 – February 2024	5 months	March 2024
9	October 2024 – January 2025	4 months	February 2025
10	October 2025 – April 2026	7 months	May 2026
11	From October 2026	in progress	not yet

* For October to December 2016 the USCIS page did not name the chart. We compared the date table on the page with the State Department bulletins cell by cell and concluded it was Chart B. For every other month the USCIS page names the chart for employment-based filings: the October and November 2015 pages are headed "Dates for Filing Employment-Based Adjustment of Status Applications", December 2015 is "Application Final Action Dates for Employment-Based Preference Cases", January 2017 is "Final Action Dates for Employment-Based Adjustment of Status Applications"; for October 2026 the USCIS page says "For all employment-based preference categories, you must use the Dates for Filing chart in the Department of State Visa Bulletin for October 2026".

What you can read directly from the table:

• In 11 of the 12 Octobers (2015–2026), employment-based filings used Chart B. The one exception was 2017: from October 2017 to September 2018 the whole fiscal year used Chart A.
• Every run began in October. None has ever started in another month.
• Each run lasted 2 to 8 months (not counting the current one), and none lasted past May. Of the 10 runs that have ended, 1 went back to Chart A in December, 5 in January to March, and 4 in April to June.
• In each of the 10 years from 2015 to 2025 when October used Chart B, November did too. That describes the past; it says nothing certain about this November.

When does USCIS usually announce? Each month's page shows a "Last Reviewed/Updated" date. Across the 76 monthly pages since March 2017 whose dates were not later overwritten in a bulk update, that date falls between the 3rd and the 28th of the previous month, with a median of the 16th, and 51 of them are within a day of when we received the State Department bulletin. On the November pages (2018 to 2023 and 2025) the date was October 12, 18, 28, 14, 7, 6 and 15. So in the past the November chart was mostly known around mid-October; check the official USCIS page. This is the review date shown on the page, which is not necessarily the day it was first posted.

This is only the record of the past and not a forecast. File in October if you can.