In the monthly Visa Bulletin, the Filing Date tells you when you can submit your green card application, and the Final Action Date tells you when that application can actually be approved. That is the whole distinction between filing date vs. Final Action Date, and everything else flows from it. Filing early gets your case into the system and unlocks work and travel benefits; the Final Action Date is the finish line where a visa number is actually issued.
What Each Chart Controls
The Visa Bulletin publishes two charts every month for each preference category and country of chargeability. The Dates for Filing chart (also called the Filing Date chart) sets the earliest priority date that can submit Form I-485 for adjustment of status. The Application Final Action Dates chart sets the earliest priority date that USCIS or a consular officer can approve.1U.S. Citizenship and Imigration Services. Visa Availability and Priority Dates
Filing Dates are typically earlier than Final Action Dates, sometimes by months or years. That gap is the space where your application can sit inside USCIS, moving through interviews and background checks, while the actual visa number you need has not yet come available.
Why Filing Early Matters
Once USCIS accepts your I-485, you become eligible to apply for an Employment Authorization Document, which lets you work for any U.S. employer, and Advance Parole, which lets you travel internationally and return without abandoning the application.2U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. Visa Retrogression For someone who has spent years on an employer-specific work visa, those two benefits are the practical reason the Filing Date chart matters at all. The green card itself still waits on the Final Action Date, but the ability to work anywhere and travel freely begins the moment the I-485 is accepted.
Your case will not be approved during that window. USCIS can complete every step of adjudication and still hold the file until a visa number is available under the Final Action Date chart.
Which Chart Applies to You This Month
You do not choose which chart to use. USCIS does, and it can change from month to month. When USCIS determines there are more visa numbers available than known applicants, it opens the Dates for Filing chart. Otherwise, applicants must use the Final Action Dates chart to determine when they can file.3U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. Adjustment of Status Filing Charts from the Visa Bulletin USCIS posts the applicable chart on its website within about a week of each Visa Bulletin’s release.
One wrinkle worth knowing: even in a month when USCIS designates the Dates for Filing chart, if a category shows “C” on the Final Action Dates chart or the Final Action Date is actually later than the Filing Date, you may file using the Final Action Dates chart instead.3U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. Adjustment of Status Filing Charts from the Visa Bulletin
The workflow is the same either way. Check USCIS’s website to see which chart controls filing that month. Find your preference category row and your country column on the correct chart. Compare the cell to your priority date. If your priority date is earlier than the date listed, you are eligible to act.
Reading Your Row and Column
Every cell in either chart shows one of three things:4Travel.State.Gov. Visa Bulletin For April 2026
- A date. The category is oversubscribed. Only applicants with priority dates earlier than that date are eligible.
- “C” for Current. Visa numbers are available for all qualified applicants in that category regardless of priority date.
- “U” for Unauthorized. No visa numbers are being issued in that category.
Your priority date is your place in line. For family-sponsored cases, it is the date USCIS receives the I-130 petition. For employment-based cases without labor certification, it is when USCIS accepts the I-140. When labor certification is required, the priority date goes back to the date the Department of Labor accepted the labor certification application.5U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. Visa Availability and Priority Dates That date stays with you throughout the process, and it is the number you carry into every future Visa Bulletin.
What Retrogression Does to Each Chart
Cutoff dates do not always move forward. When demand exceeds supply, the State Department can move dates backward. This is called retrogression, and the April 2026 Visa Bulletin warns it may become necessary later in the fiscal year to keep issuances within annual limits.4Travel.State.Gov. Visa Bulletin For April 2026
Retrogression affects the two charts differently depending on where you are in the process. If the Final Action Date moves behind your priority date after you already filed your I-485, your case is not denied. It is placed on hold until the date advances again. You can continue to renew your work permit and travel authorization while you wait.2U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. Visa Retrogression That protection is one of the strongest arguments for filing under the Dates for Filing chart the moment it opens for your category.
If retrogression hits before you file, it can shut the door. When the applicable chart moves behind your priority date, you cannot submit an I-485 until the date advances past your priority date again. Anyone in a backlogged category needs to check the bulletin every month.
Why the Final Action Date Matters for Children Aging Out
The Filing Date has no role in the Child Status Protection Act calculation. Only the Final Action Date does. For family-sponsored and employment-based preference cases, a child’s protected age is calculated by subtracting the time the underlying petition was pending from the child’s age on the date a visa becomes available. That “visa availability” date is the later of two things: the date the petition was approved, or the first day of the month when the Final Action Dates chart shows a visa available for the child’s category.6U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. Child Status Protection Act (CSPA)
The child must also remain unmarried and must take a concrete step to pursue permanent residence within one year of that visa becoming available, such as filing Form I-485 or submitting the DS-260.6U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. Child Status Protection Act (CSPA) Families with a child approaching 21 should watch the Final Action Date closely, because the Filing Date chart, however useful it is for adults filing early, does not stop the CSPA clock.