Tip: You can quickly view thousands of green card cases in the free GC Tracker. You can also check latestdate movement in VB Charts. For latest immigration news, please click hereor view GC Blog.
Green Card Calculator:
You can use GC calculator to estimate when your priority date may become current. Since USCIS updates data every few weeks, estimated date shown below may also change every few weeks.
Preference:
Priority Date:
USCIS/NVC Case Status:
USCIS Case Processing Time:
Form: (example I-130, I-140, I-485, etc)Find Form Number
Form Category:
Service Center or Field Office:
Q. What does the estimated time range mean?
A. This time range is how long it is taking USCIS to process your case from the date they received it. The first number is the time it takes to complete80% of cases. The second number is the time it takes to complete 93% of cases.
USCIS calculate processing times by using historical data of completed cases. They cannot project how long it will take to complete a case filed today. USCIS generally process cases in the order theyreceive them. Please note that times may change without prior notice.
USCIS have also posted a “Receipt date for a case inquiry" in the table above to show when you can inquire about your case.
Next Steps:
(a) If yourreceipt date is before the “Receipt date for acase inquiry", you can submit an “outside normal processing time” service request online.
(b) If yourreceipt date is after the “Receipt date for acase inquiry", you can enter your priority date below to see when you can submit service request:
NVC Case Processing Time:
Important Notes:
- GC calculator is currently in beta version. We will continue to tweak the algorithm. So dates could slightly change.
- Please consider this calculator as a rough estimate. Please do NOT make important decisions based on this calculator.
- Since there are many factors which affects visa bulletin dates, even USCIS may not be able to accurately estimate when PD may be current.In addition, every month these factors changes (which we cannot always estimate).Some months the dates may move twice as fast, if demand is low. Some months the dates may not move at all, if demand is high.
- Your priority date have to be before visa bulletin cutoff date to be current. Example, if visa bulletin date is 05MAY11, yourpriority date have to be May 4 or earlier to be current. If you PD is May 5, you will have to wait for next visa bulletin.
- To estimate dates for El Savador/Guatemala/Hondura, please select "Rest Of World" above.
Frequently Asked Questions:
Show Calculator FAQ
Q. How does USCIS/DOS determine Visa Bulletin Dates?
A. Visa Bulletin dates are based on supply and demand. Supply is fixed at 226,000 per year for family based (FB) categories. It is 140,000 per yearfor employment based (EB) categories + any unused visas in FB categories.
Each FB and EB categories has sub categories (F1, F2A, F2B, F3, F4, EB1, EB2, EB3, EB4, EB5) which has its own quota. Visas are allocated quaterly. Also each country has 7% limit on total visas.
Example: EB2 India has an annual quota of 7% * 28.6% * 140,000 = 2802 visas per year. If the demand in EB2 India is more than 2802 per year, then DOS (Department Of State)establishes a cuttoff date so that annual allocation does not exceed 2802 per year.
Q. What about spillovers?
A. Since all FB categories are retrogressed, there are no spillovers in FB categories (unless there are unused visas in EB category). EB categories have two spillovers:
(a) If there are any unused visas in FB categories, thenit is equally distributed among all EB categories.
(b) In the last quarter of fiscal year (July to Sept), DOS estimates how manyvisas will be unused in EB1, EB4 and EB5 categories (which are Current) and allocates itas follows: EB4 + EB5 --> EB1 --> EB2 --> EB3. DOS allocates these spillovers so that EB categories use up all available quota of 140,000 per year.
Q. How accurate is this calculator?
A. There are many factors which affects visa bulletin date movement. Most of these factors changes every month. Hence please consider this as a rough estimate.Based on new data received from USCIS, the dates shown above can easily change every month (or sooner).
A good example of rapidly changing data is EB2 India category. Dates moved forward by around 3 years in few months. However in the next few months, it retrogressed by around six years and have stayed same for next 9 months.Then it moved forward by 3 years, etc. There could be big changes in dates (based on many other factors such as spillovers, etc).
Q. The calculator is unable to predict some priority date? Why is that?
A. If we are unable to determine a "good estimate", the dates would be listed as "Unknown". A good example is EB2 India. Currently the people porting (upgrading) from EB3 Indiato EB2 India is using up all available quota for EB2 India (which is around 2802 per year). In this case the only way EB2 India dates will move forward is whenit gets EB/FB spillovers. Since demand is changing every month in other EB categories, we cannot estimate how much spillovers will fall to EB2 India. Henceestimate would be unknown at this time. This could change when we get new data from USCIS.
Next Steps:
GC Tracker: If you have not done it yet, please remember to add or update your I-130 / NVC / I-140 / I-485 case in the free GCtracker (which has thousands of cases):www.mygcvisa.com/tracker/
It would be very useful to understand how USCIS is currently processing these cases in each category. It would also help in estimating date movements in future visa bulletin.
More Options: If you are new to immigration process or would like to see what other immigration options are available, pleaseclick here: https://www.mygcvisa.com/immigration/
Email Newsletter: To receive email as soon as latest visa bulletin is released, please click here.
When Can I Get My Green Card: Get step-by-step details on when you can expect toget your green card (including latest timeframe for each step of GC process for both EB and FB categories).
Latest Immigration News (updated every 15 minutes): https://www.mygcvisa.com/news/
Q. My priority date is current or will be current soon. What are the next steps?
A. If applicant is inside US, they can file I-485 application: https://blog.mygcvisa.com/2013/04/how-to-file-i-485-application.html
If applicant is outside US and I-130/I-140 petition is approved, the application would be sent to NVC: https://www.mygcvisa.com/nvc/overview-after-nvc-petition-approved.aspx
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