United StatesVisa Bulletin (US Department of State)
Definition
The Visa Bulletin is the monthly publication of the US Department of State that shows, for each green card category and country, the cut-off dates that decide whose immigrant visa or green card can move forward. For international nurses on the EB-3 route, it decides when an approved I-140 can turn into permanent residence.
Also called: Visa Bulletin, visa bulletin EB-3, Final Action Dates, Dates for Filing, visa bulletin nurses, cut-off date
Checked against official sources on
What is the Visa Bulletin?
The number of employment-based green cards is limited each year, by category and by country of chargeability. USCIS explains that the Department of State publishes the Visa Bulletin every month, and that a visa is available to you when your priority date is earlier than the cut-off date shown for your category and country.
Chargeability is usually your country of birth, not your nationality. That is why nurses born in, for example, the Philippines or India can have a different wait from nurses born elsewhere, who fall under "all chargeability areas".
The two charts
- Final Action Dates: when a green card can actually be approved or an immigrant visa issued.
- Dates for Filing: when you can get ready earlier, for example by sending documents to the National Visa Center or, if USCIS allows it that month, filing an adjustment of status.
USCIS says it announces which chart applies to adjustment applications within a week of the bulletin's publication. It chooses Dates for Filing when it expects more immigrant visas to be available than there are known applicants, and Final Action Dates otherwise. For November 2026, USCIS said all employment-based applicants filing with it must use the Dates for Filing chart.
A C means the category is current, so anyone qualified can proceed whatever their priority date. A U means visas are temporarily unavailable to everyone in that category or country.
How a nurse reads it
- Find your priority date on your I-140 receipt or approval notice. For a Schedule A case it is the date USCIS accepted the I-140.
- Open the current bulletin on travel.state.gov and go to the employment-based tables.
- Find the row for your category, usually EB-3 ("3rd") for professional nurses.
- Find the column for your country of chargeability.
- Compare your priority date with the date shown. If yours is earlier, your case can move forward.
- If you are in the US, check the USCIS page to see which chart applies this month.
When dates move, and retrogression
Dates can move forward, stand still or move back. USCIS explains that when the new fiscal year starts on October 1, a new supply of visa numbers becomes available, and cut-off dates often, but not always, recover. Moving backwards is called retrogression; our priority date page explains it.
This matters when you plan. An approved I-140 can wait months or years for a current date, and a date that was current can become unavailable the next month. The queue is the same whether you finish abroad, through an immigrant visa interview at a US consulate, or inside the US by adjusting status with USCIS.
Common problems
- Reading the wrong row or column, for example using nationality instead of country of birth.
- Using the wrong chart for an adjustment filing.
- Booking a move date around a cut-off that later retrogresses.
See our EB-3 visa page and USA overview.
Questions
The US Department of State, every month, on travel.state.gov. USCIS then says which chart applies to adjustment of status applications that month.
Final Action Dates show when a green card can be approved or an immigrant visa issued. Dates for Filing show when you may start the final stage earlier, for example by submitting documents or, when USCIS allows, filing an adjustment application.
C means current: visas are immediately available in that category and country, so anyone qualified can proceed regardless of priority date.
Usually EB-3, the third employment-based preference, because professional nurses are normally sponsored as Schedule A workers in that category.
Limits apply by country of chargeability, which is usually country of birth. People born in high-demand countries can have later cut-off dates in the same category.
The US fiscal year starts on October 1, when a new supply of visa numbers becomes available. USCIS says dates often, but not always, return to earlier levels then.