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Immigration Law

The Visa Bulletin

The Visa Bulletin is super important in the practice of family-based immigration. Make sure you understand how it works. The dates in the chart are so-called "priority dates", indicating that visas are available for benefeciaries for whom petititions (Form I-130s) were filed on or before the date listed. With the Bulletin, you can see how long certain beneficaries have waited for their visa to become "available." On that basis, one can roughly project out how long a visa in any particular category will take to become available for petitions filed today.