What changed
The Department of State (DOS) Visa Bulletin is published monthly by the Bureau of Consular Affairs’ Visa Office. It tells the world which preference categories have visa numbers available in the coming month, and — for the categories that are oversubscribed — which priority dates can finally claim a number. The Bulletin is not a regulation. It is the monthly application of the per-country and per-category numerical limits Congress wrote into INA §§ 201–203, and it is the single most important document in the immigrant-visa system.
Nothing about the Bulletin’s structure has “changed” in 2026 in the headline sense, but the way practitioners read it has evolved since DOS introduced the two-chart format (Final Action Dates and Dates for Filing) in October 2015. Both charts now appear every month for both Family and Employment cases, and USCIS announces separately, on the When to File Adjustment Visa Bulletin page, which chart applies to I-485 filings that month. June 2026’s Bulletin continues that pattern.
Why it matters
A priority date is the place in line a foreign national holds. For family-sponsored cases it is the date USCIS receives a properly filed Form I-130. For employment-based cases it is the date the PERM ETA-9089 is filed with DOL, or, where PERM is not required (EB-1, NIW, EB-5), the date the Form I-140 or I-526E is filed with USCIS.
The Bulletin tells the petitioner whether that priority date is now “current” — meaning a visa number is available — for either visa issuance abroad (the Final Action Dates chart) or for filing the adjustment-of-status application inside the United States (the Dates for Filing chart, when USCIS authorizes its use). Reading the wrong chart, or the wrong country column, is the most common reason a case is rejected, a medical exam is wasted, or an EAD is missed by a year.
Way forward
Find your chart. The Bulletin posts four charts every month: Family Final Action Dates (Chart A), Family Dates for Filing (Chart B), Employment Final Action Dates (Chart A), Employment Dates for Filing (Chart B). Consular processing at a U.S. embassy always uses Final Action Dates — that is the date that has to be current for the National Visa Center (NVC) to schedule an immigrant-visa interview. For adjustment of status on Form I-485, you must check the USCIS Adjustment of Status Filing Charts From the Visa Bulletin page each month — USCIS picks Chart A or Chart B and the choice can flip from month to month within a single category.
Find your category row. Family preference rows: F1 (unmarried sons and daughters of U.S. citizens), F2A (spouses and children under 21 of LPRs), F2B (unmarried sons and daughters over 21 of LPRs), F3 (married sons and daughters of U.S. citizens), F4 (siblings of U.S. citizens). Employment preference rows: EB-1, EB-2, EB-3, “Other Workers” (a subcategory of EB-3 limited to unskilled positions), EB-4 (special immigrants — religious workers, certain juveniles, Iraqi/Afghan SIVs), and EB-5 (with separate rows for Unreserved, Rural Set-Aside, High-Unemployment Set-Aside, and Infrastructure Set-Aside under the EB-5 Reform and Integrity Act of 2022).
Find your chargeability column. Every preference chart has columns for “All Chargeability Areas Except Those Listed,” then dedicated columns for China-mainland born, El Salvador / Guatemala / Honduras (family only), India, Mexico, and Philippines. Chargeability is generally the country of birth, not the country of citizenship — see INA § 202(b) and the 9 FAM 503.2 cross-chargeability rules.
Read the cell. A specific date (“15JAN20”) means a priority date earlier than that date may claim a number this month. The letter C means the category is “current” — every priority date in that category and country qualifies. The letter U means “unavailable” — no numbers are being issued at all this month, usually because the annual cap has been consumed.
Translate to action. If your priority date is current under the Final Action chart and you are abroad, NVC will schedule a consular interview. If your priority date is current under whichever chart USCIS is honoring this month and you are in the U.S. in a valid status, you may file Form I-485, plus concurrently Form I-765 for an EAD and Form I-131 for advance parole. If only the Dates-for-Filing chart is current but USCIS is honoring Final Action Dates that month, you must wait — USCIS will reject an early I-485.
Watch for retrogression. DOS can pull a date backward mid-fiscal-year if demand exceeds supply, especially in EB-2 India, EB-3 China, and F2A worldwide. Cases already filed remain pending; new cases will not be accepted until the date advances again. The Visa Office’s monthly notes at the bottom of each Bulletin are the early-warning system — read them, not just the table.
Disclaimer
Fola is a software company, not a law firm, and nothing in this article is legal advice. The monthly Visa Bulletin and USCIS’s adjustment-filing-chart announcement are the binding sources — verify your category, your chargeability, and the chart that controls your month against travel.state.gov and uscis.gov/visabulletininfo before filing anything, and consult a qualified U.S. immigration attorney for case-specific advice.