TAG

Priority dates

Visa queue mechanics, retrogression, and filing charts.

IMM-01 · 01

Reading the Visa Bulletin: Final Action Dates, Filing Dates, and Retrogression

8 MIN · IMM

The monthly bulletin turns on one comparison: your priority date against a published cut-off. This brief works both charts, the monthly USCIS chart determination, and the arithmetic behind a date that moves backwards.

A visa number is available when your priority date falls earlier than the cut-off published for your preference category and country of chargeability.
Final Action Dates govern approval and visa issuance; Dates for Filing govern only when paperwork may be submitted and documents assembled.
USCIS posts a determination each month stating which chart adjustment applicants may use; consular cases follow National Visa Center practice instead.

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IMM-02 · 02

Form I-864 Affidavit of Support: Household Size, Income, Assets, and Joint Sponsors

9 MIN · IMM

The affidavit of support is an enforceable contract with the government and the immigrant, not a formality. Household arithmetic decides most cases, and the obligation outlives the marriage that created it.

The sponsor must show income at or above 125 percent of the federal poverty guidelines for a household size the form defines precisely.
Household size counts the sponsor, dependents, the intending immigrants, and anyone still covered by a prior affidavit the sponsor signed.
Assets may fill a shortfall, but the required multiple of the gap differs depending on the immigrant's relationship to the sponsor.

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IMM-13 · 03

The EB-5 Investor Route: Capital, Job Creation, and Regional Centres

8 MIN · IMM

An EB-5 case is an evidence problem before it is an investment. This brief sets out what the capital must do, how jobs are counted, and what the 2022 Reform and Integrity Act changed.

EB-5 requires capital invested in a new commercial enterprise that creates at least ten full-time positions for qualifying employees.
The 2022 Reform and Integrity Act set standard and targeted-employment-area investment tiers and reserved visas for rural, high-unemployment, and infrastructure projects.
Lawful source and path of funds is the most document-intensive element and the most common reason petitions draw extended review.

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IMM-14 · 04

The Diversity Visa Lottery: Entry, Selection, and the Fiscal-Year Deadline

7 MIN · IMM

Selection in the diversity lottery is permission to apply, not a visa. This brief works the registration rules, the rank-number system, and the hard September deadline that ends unfinished cases.

The diversity visa is an annual registration with random computer selection from qualifying entries; there is no fee to register on the official site.
Selection is not a visa and confers no status, no travel right, and no work authorisation — it only permits an application to proceed.
Selectees receive a rank number that must become current in the monthly bulletin before a case can be scheduled or decided.

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IMM-29 · 05

AC21 Portability: Changing Jobs With a Pending Adjustment Application

8 MIN · IMM

Portability lets a sponsored worker leave the sponsoring employer without losing the case, but only after the application has been pending 180 days and only into a same-or-similar job.

Once an adjustment application has been pending 180 days or more, the underlying petition remains valid if the new job is in a same or similar occupational classification.
The change is documented on Form I-485 Supplement J, which confirms the new offer and the applicant's intention to work in that position.
An approved petition that has been approved for 180 days is generally protected from automatic revocation when the employer withdraws it.

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