priority date: 2moving dates@bulletin

Posted on by tiger40490 rendered_on [ Thu, 6 Mar 2025 ] 13:32 UTC

See also

When your PD falls BEFORE the moving cutoff date you can file application for EAD + AP and become “free” to change job. There are 2 cutoff dates in the visa bulletin (like Jan 2012 and Dec 2013), so which one to look at?

Which one do you wish to be the cutoff date? The Later date i.e. the date closer to now! (To figure out, just imagine your PD happens to be between the two cutoff dates.)

Yes. The change by Obama (might be removed  by Trump?) is helping the foreigner. So the later date, so-called filing date, is the cutoff date to look at. If you PD falls Before that, you can “file” you application for EAD card.

Note in the Dec 2016 visa bulletin, China-born EB3 has a better (Later) cutoff date than EB2, so perhaps the EB3 backlog is now shorter.

🙂 Trump is determined to cut the backlog, by hiring more judges, but Deepak believes the real bottleneck is the 9000/country/year quota

— my experience: In Oct 2020, DateForFiling cutoff moved quickly to mid 2018. My priority date is Nov 2017 and is now current.

— explanation of two cutoff dates

FinalActionDate cutoff is the one to track, according to Sean Wang, but I think DateForFiling cutoff is more relevant. http://lhscimmigration.com/immigration-news/news/date-for-filing-vs-final-action-date-the-department-of-states-new-two-tiered-visa-bulletin/ shows:

After a case is submitted (“filed”), it can be many months before USCIS can start processing it.

Suppose the moving DateForFiling cutoff is now before your PD, so you can file your case immediately. There are two main “benefits of a pending adjustment”.. see EAD/AP(documents) #basics

A few months later your case will be picked up and processed by USCIS as a visa number becomes available. Without an available immigrant visa number, USCIS can’t process your case.