Escrito por James Chae — Cofundador, Expert Sapiens
Revisado junio 2026
Immigration
¿Qué es Priority Date?
Definición
The date that determines a foreign national's place in line for an immigrant visa number — essentially a timestamp that governs when they can move forward with a green card application.
A priority date is established when an immigrant visa petition is properly filed with USCIS (or, for employment-based cases, when a PERM labor certification application is filed with the Department of Labor). It functions as a queue number in the U.S. immigration system, which allocates a limited number of immigrant visas per year by country of birth and preference category — not country of citizenship.
The U.S. Department of State publishes a monthly Visa Bulletin that indicates which priority dates are 'current' — meaning a visa number is available for applicants with that date or earlier. For oversubscribed countries like India and China in the EB-2 and EB-3 employment-based categories, priority dates can be decades behind the present, meaning an applicant with an approved I-140 may wait 10–20+ years before they can file for Adjustment of Status or consular processing.
The Visa Bulletin contains two charts: Chart A (Dates for Filing) and Chart B (Final Action Dates). USCIS determines each month which chart to use, and applicants must monitor both to determine when they can file I-485 applications. Using the wrong chart or missing a filing window can cost months of waiting.
Priority dates can be preserved through employer changes under certain conditions (AC21 portability), and they travel with the applicant — not the employer — once an I-140 has been approved for 180+ days. For family-based petitions, the priority date is set when the I-130 is filed.
Por qué es importante
For foreign nationals working in the U.S. on temporary visas, the priority date is one of the most important numbers in their immigration journey — it determines how long they must wait before achieving permanent residence. Misunderstanding priority date mechanics, missing a filing window, or failing to preserve a priority date through a job change can cost years.
For employers, priority date awareness is essential for workforce planning, especially when retaining high-value employees from India or China who face multi-decade waits. An immigration attorney can help employees protect their priority dates, navigate the AC21 portability rules, and strategize around long queues.