Green Card Wait Time Estimator: How Long Until Your Priority Date Is Current
Enter your priority date, category and country of birth to get an estimated time range, based on how fast the Visa Bulletin has moved in past years. The worldwide annual floor for employment-based green cards is 140,000 (the real number can be higher, because unused family-based numbers from the previous fiscal year roll over). The per-country cap is 7% of family-based and employment-based numbers combined, not 7% of employment-based — for fiscal year 2026 that is about 25,000, not 7% of 140,000. This is the direct reason applicants from China and India wait longer.
Green card wait time estimator
Estimate when your priority date will become current
Your I-140 approval date or PERM filing date
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How the Estimate Works
Based on historical movement
We measure how many days the Final Action Date for your category and country of birth has moved each month over the past several years, project how long it will take to reach your priority date, and give optimistic / median / conservative ranges instead of a single date.
Why a range and not a date
Dates do not move at a steady pace. Fiscal year-end settlement, unused numbers rolling over between categories, and changes in the number of applicants all cause month-to-month swings, and dates have moved backward many times. Any estimate that claims an exact date is not reliable.
The two charts
The Visa Bulletin publishes two charts each month: Final Action Dates decide when your green card can be approved, and Dates for Filing decide when you can file your I-485. USCIS announces separately each month which chart it accepts for adjustment of status, and the two can differ.
Frequently Asked Questions
- Why do applicants born in India or China wait longer?
- Because of INA 202(a)(2): the per-country cap is 7% of family-based and employment-based numbers combined, not 7% of employment-based. And it is a cap, not a quota — when other countries don't use all their numbers, INA 202(a)(5) lets China and India receive far more than 7%. That is why China and India dates occasionally jump forward.
- Can I benefit if my spouse was born in a different country?
- There is a mechanism called cross-chargeability: spouses can use each other's country of birth, and children can use a parent's. But the law says it applies only when "necessary to prevent the separation" of the family, and it doesn't help if that country also has a backlog.
- Can dates move backward?
- Yes. When demand in a category is higher than expected, the State Department may move the date back. This has happened in both employment-based and family-based categories.
Sources: Data and Law
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This tool gives estimates based on public regulations and government data, for reference only. It is not legal advice. We are not a law firm. Every case is different — talk to an immigration lawyer before making a decision.