Where the line is right now

USCIS designated the Final Action Dates chart for employment-based adjustment-of-status filings in September 2026. That designation changes month to month, and it determines which cutoff actually governs when you can file.

Has it moved backward?

The cutoff for All Other Countries has moved backward 6 times since October 2015. When that happens, people who were eligible to file stop being eligible.

• September 2024 — moved backward from December 1, 2021 to December 1, 2020, a loss of 365 days.
• July 2024 — moved backward from November 22, 2022 to December 1, 2021, a loss of 356 days.
• August 2023 — moved backward from February 1, 2022 to May 1, 2020, a loss of 641 days.
• July 2023 — moved backward from June 1, 2022 to February 1, 2022, a loss of 120 days.
• August 2019 — moved backward from November 1, 2016 to July 1, 2016, a loss of 123 days.
• September 2018 — moved backward from June 8, 2017 to November 1, 2016, a loss of 219 days.

Who is in this line

This line is the third employment preference for skilled workers, whose jobs require at least two years of training or experience, and for professionals whose jobs require a bachelor’s degree. It is employer-sponsored. Jobs that require less than two years are the separate Other Workers row. All Other Countries is a chargeability line, not one community. The community guides cover Indian, Chinese, Filipino, Mexican, and Nigerian communities.

What a priority date actually is

Your priority date is the day the Department of Labor accepted the labor certification. It is your place in line, and it never changes.

Every month the State Department publishes a cutoff date for each category and country of birth. A visa number is available only under the Final Action chart, and only when the priority date is earlier than that cutoff. A Dates for Filing cutoff controls filing, not visa issuance. Because the law caps how many green cards any one country can receive per year, applicants born in high-demand countries wait far longer than the worldwide line for the exact same category.

Country of birth is what matters — not citizenship, not where you live now. That single fact is why two colleagues doing identical work at the same company can be years apart in the same queue.