One of the most frustrating things about the process of current immigration law is the backlog of approved family visa petitions that are awaiting a ripe priority date in order to actually receive a visa. If you are fortunate enough to have a family member or employer with the ability to petition for you to live in the US, you may still experience a long wait to receive your green card. How long? Well, that all depends…
What is a priority date?
Certain categories of visas have a strict numerical limit on the numbers of visas available every year. People who have applied for an immigrant visa and fall in one of these restricted categories must wait their turn for a visa based on the date that they initially applied – their priority date. In order to determine who is eligible to apply, each month, the State Department publishes a visa bulletin that shows which priority dates are current.