Priority Date

A priority date is the timestamp that fixes an applicant's place in the queue for a U.S. family- or employment-based green card, under the per-country numerical limits Congress sets each year. How it's established depends on the petition category. For employment-based cases that require PERM labor certification (most EB-2 and EB-3 cases), the priority date is the day the Department of Labor accepts the labor certification application for processing — not the later date the employer files Form I-140. For employment categories that skip labor certification (EB-1, and EB-2 National Interest Waiver cases), the priority date is simply the day USCIS accepts the Form I-140 petition. Family-based petitions use the day Form I-130 (or Form I-360 in certain cases) is properly filed. The date appears on the USCIS Form I-797 Notice of Action receipt. Every month, the State Department's Visa Bulletin publishes cut-off dates by category and country of chargeability. A visa is available once the applicant's priority date is earlier than that cut-off — a category marked "C" (current) has no cut-off at all, while a date later than the cut-off means the applicant must keep waiting, a backlog commonly called retrogression when a cut-off moves backward due to high demand. Example: an EB-3 applicant born in India whose employer's PERM application was accepted by DOL in March 2022 has a priority date of March 2022, even if the I-140 wasn't filed until a year later. Because EB-3 India demand far exceeds the per-country limit, that applicant may wait years after filing before the Visa Bulletin's India EB-3 cut-off date passes March 2022 and a visa number becomes available.