US Visa Bulletin Explained for UAE Green Card Cases

What the Visa Bulletin Actually Is

The Visa Bulletin is a monthly chart published by the US Department of State. It does not affect tourist, student or work visit visas — it exists only for [family-sponsored](/services/family-visa) and employment-based immigrant visas (green cards), where US law caps the number issued each year, both worldwide and per country.

If you or a family member has an approved immigrant petition (I-130 for family, I-140 for employment) and is waiting for a visa number to become available, the Bulletin is the document that tells you where the queue currently stands.

This is a large enough topic that it gets its own guide separately from our usual UAE visitor-visa content, because we get asked about it often — many families in the UAE are themselves waiting on a petition filed for a relative, or have relatives abroad waiting on one filed for them.

Two Charts, Not One

Each monthly Bulletin publishes two separate tables for the same categories:

• Final Action Dates — your case can only be approved (or your immigrant visa issued) once your priority date is earlier than this cutoff.
• Dates for Filing — an earlier-stage cutoff. Once your priority date clears this one, you can submit your immigrant visa application (DS-260) and documents to the National Visa Center, even though final approval still waits on the Final Action Dates chart.

For applicants processing through a US consulate (rather than adjusting status inside the US), USCIS announces each month which of the two charts NVC should use for that round. Always check the current month's Bulletin and the accompanying USCIS announcement — which chart applies has changed from month to month.

Your Priority Date and Category Come First

Before any of this is useful, you need two things from your own case:

1. Priority date — the date your petition was filed (shown on your I-797 receipt notice), not the date it was approved.

2. Category and country of birth — family categories are F1, F2A, F2B, F3 and F4; employment categories are EB-1 through EB-5. Country of birth (not citizenship or residence) is what the chart uses.

You are "current" when the cutoff date listed for your category and country is *later* than your priority date.

Why Some Countries Wait Longer

By law, no single country can receive more than roughly 7% of the annual worldwide visa numbers in most categories. Countries with very high petition volume relative to that cap — historically India, China, Mexico and the Philippines — run separate, longer cutoff dates from the rest of the world in several categories. This is a structural feature of the law, not a temporary backlog that will resolve on its own.

Dates Can Move Backward

A cutoff date "retrogressing" — moving backward instead of forward — happens when demand in a category outpaces the visa numbers available for the rest of that fiscal year, which runs October to September. This is most common in the final months before the fiscal year ends (typically August and September) and is a normal, if unwelcome, part of how the annual caps are managed. It is not an error and not specific to any one applicant.

What Happens Once You're Current

If you're processing from outside the US, becoming current is when the National Visa Center moves your case forward: you (or your petitioner) file the DS-260 immigrant visa application, submit civil documents and the Affidavit of Support, and pay the required fees. Once NVC confirms the file is complete, it schedules an interview at the US embassy or consulate with jurisdiction over the beneficiary's residence — for many UAE-based beneficiaries, that is typically the US Embassy in Abu Dhabi, though NVC confirms the assigned post for your specific case, and it's worth verifying directly with NVC rather than assuming.

Becoming current does not itself schedule an interview — it only unlocks the next step. NVC processing and post-specific interview wait times are separate from the Bulletin and move on their own timeline.

Where to Check the Current Bulletin

Never rely on a specific date quoted in a blog post, including this one — the numbers move monthly and the source of record is the US Department of State itself:

• Current and past Visa Bulletins: travel.state.gov (Bureau of Consular Affairs)
• Which chart to use for filing this month: the USCIS "Visa Availability and Priority Dates" page, updated alongside each Bulletin
• Case-specific status once with NVC: the CEAC portal, using your case number

Frequently Asked Questions

Does the Visa Bulletin affect B1/B2 visitor visas?

No. Visitor, student and most work visas are nonimmigrant categories with no annual numerical cap, so they never appear on the Bulletin. It applies only to family-sponsored and employment-based immigrant (green card) cases.

My priority date became current, then went backward next month. Can that happen?

Yes — see retrogression above. It reverses if demand eases, but there's no fixed timeline for when that happens.

I live in the UAE but my petition was filed in the US. Where do I get interviewed?

Once NVC assembles your case, it assigns a post based on your current residence, not your nationality or where the petition was filed. Confirm the assigned post directly with NVC once your case is documentarily complete — do not assume based on general guidance like this article.

Is the Diversity Visa (DV) lottery on the same chart?

The DV program has its own separate cutoff numbers, published in the same monthly Bulletin but tracked independently of the family and employment categories above.

How We Help

Open Visa Global doesn't file or manage immigrant visa petitions — that's a different process from the visit, student and work visas we prepare. But we do see this often from a different angle: UAE-based family members wanting to visit a relative abroad (or vice versa) while a green card case is still pending. If that's your situation, see our guide on US B1/B2 visa processing from Dubai for the visitor-visa route — our document review service can help make sure that separate application is solid while you wait on the Bulletin for the other one.