Use GC calculator to estimate when your priority date may become current
Green Card Priority Date Calculator
NVC Case Processing Time:
Current case creation time and welcome letter: As of 12-Jun-23, NVC is working on cases that were received from USCIS on 31-May-23.
Current case review time: As of 12-Jun-23, NVC is reviewing documents submitted to them on 27-May-23.
Current email response time: Current Public Inquiry Form response time: As of 12-Jun-23, NVC is responding to inquiries received on 5-Jun-23.
Important Note: If you did not receive a response per the timeframes mentioned above, please contact NVC using public inquiry form. NVC requests that you make a subsequent inquiry only if you do not receive a response to your email within their published timeframe above. Duplicate inquiries slow their ability to respond to you in a timely manner.
Frequently Asked Questions:
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 year for 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, then it is equally distributed among all EB categories.
(b) In the last quarter of fiscal year (July to Sept), DOS estimates how many visas will be unused in EB1, EB4 and EB5 categories (which are Current) and allocates it as 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 India to 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 when it 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. Hence estimate would be unknown at this time. This could change when we get new data from USCIS.
Next Steps:
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