Lawfully Case Tracker-Visa Bulletin
Looking for the instructions on how to read the Visa Bulletin posted on the US Department of State (DOS) and the USCIS website every month?
What is the Visa Bulletin
It provides an updated waiting list for immigrants that are subject to the quota system. If you are a Green Card applicant and has already had Form I-130 or I-140 approved, the Visa Bulletin, indicates when it’s your turn to apply for Form I-485 or move on to the next step in order to have a visa interview.
How to read the Visa Bulletin
Double check your visa type, priority date, and country of origin before moving on to the Visa Bulletin. Priority date lets you know it’s your turn to apply for Form I-485. In general, priority date is assigned to you in the letter that you received when you filed Form I-130 or I-140 with USCIS. Country of origin isn’t necessarily the same as your current citizenship. Rather, it means where you were born.
The DOS website updates the Visa Bulletin every month. If you apply outside the U.S., you need to check the dates for filing. Applicants in the U.S. usually refer to the final action dates. However, depending on the available number of visas every month, USCIS advises applicants of specific visa types to check the dates for filing instead. In other words, when you process a visa application in the U.S., keep an eye on the USCIS instruction of the visa bulletin.
Where to find the Visa Bulletin
If you’re still confused about how to read the Visa Bulletin, there’s a better way to figure it out without looking at the government websites.
Turn on the Lawfully app and select “Visa Bulletin” in the main page. Enter priority date, country of origin and visa type, and pull up your own Visa Bulletin.
This page provides your visa information followed by the visa bulletin this month. You can check right away how much progress the visa bulletin of your visa type has made from last month.
Click on your visa type to explore a visa bulletin history of your visa type with details. The progress of the final action date and date for filing is beautifully displayed in a bar graph, where you can conveniently compare two dates in terms of their progress.
Final action date and date for filing are displayed in a bar graph. You can also view your progress as a line chart in “Trend” or as text in “List”.
Lawfully makes it easy to view Visa Bulletin updates. Turn on notifications and sit back, then you will automatically receive monthly updates so you can see if it’s time to start the rest of your visa application.
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