December 2026 Visa Bulletin Predictions (Family Categories First)

Published November 3, 2026. Analysis ahead of the official December Visa Bulletin. Immediate relatives of U.S. citizens, meaning spouses, parents, and unmarried children under 21, are not on the preference charts and do not wait for a visa number. This page is for the preference categories only: F1, F2A, F2B, F3, and F4.

A month ago we published our November 2026 predictions and told readers to expect a quiet second month of the fiscal year. The State Department did something different. It advanced the worldwide Final Action Dates for F1, F2B, F3, and F4 by exactly twelve months each, and did the same on the Dates for Filing chart. We were right about F2A, which crept forward by one month, and wrong about the rest. That is the point of a prediction page: the official chart corrects it, and the next prediction has to start from what actually happened. Below is what the November chart says, how we read it for December, and what a family with a pending I-130 should do in the next two weeks. When the official December chart posts, compare it against this analysis and against our Visa Bulletin hub.

What the November 2026 bulletin actually did

The November bulletin, dated October 5, 2026, is the second chart of fiscal year 2027. These are the Final Action Dates for the family preference categories, with the October figure in parentheses so the movement is visible:

• F1 (unmarried adult sons and daughters of U.S. citizens): worldwide January 22, 2021 (from January 22, 2020); Mexico September 22, 2008 (from September 8, 2008); the Philippines November 1, 2013 (unchanged).
• F2A (spouses and children under 21 of permanent residents): worldwide October 22, 2026 (from September 22, 2026); Mexico April 22, 2026 (from March 22, 2026). On the Dates for Filing chart F2A is current for every country, and USCIS confirmed that family-based adjustment applicants use the Dates for Filing chart for November.
• F2B (unmarried adult sons and daughters of permanent residents): worldwide August 22, 2020 (from August 22, 2019); Mexico May 15, 2010 and the Philippines October 1, 2013, both unchanged.
• F3 (married sons and daughters of U.S. citizens): worldwide October 22, 2015 (from October 22, 2014); Mexico July 15, 2001 (from July 1, 2001); the Philippines July 22, 2006 (unchanged).
• F4 (siblings of U.S. citizens): worldwide and China October 22, 2012 (from October 22, 2011); India December 15, 2006, Mexico April 22, 2001, and the Philippines May 15, 2008, all unchanged.

Three things stand out. The worldwide columns, which also cover China, moved by a clean year in every category except F2A. The Philippines did not move anywhere. Mexico moved two weeks in F1 and F3, one month in F2A, and not at all in F2B and F4. India moved only where it shares the worldwide column. That pattern, big worldwide jumps with the oversubscribed countries held in place, is what the State Department does when it has visa numbers to hand out early in the fiscal year and wants to use them before demand catches up.

How to read Final Action Dates vs Dates for Filing

• Final Action Dates are the dates on which a green card or immigrant visa can actually be approved or issued. If your priority date is earlier than the cutoff for your category and country of chargeability, a visa number is available.
• Dates for Filing run ahead of Final Action Dates. They tell consular applicants when to send documents to the National Visa Center, and USCIS decides each month whether adjustment applicants may use that chart to file Form I-485.
• "Current" means no backlog: any priority date qualifies. A country-specific column (Mexico, the Philippines, India, or mainland China) overrides the worldwide column for people born there, not for people who are citizens there.

Our Visa Bulletin hub walks through both charts. If you are not sure which chart governs your I-485, ask a family-immigration lawyer before you file, because an application filed against the wrong chart is rejected or denied, not held.

F2A: spouses and children of permanent residents

F2A is the category that decides the most households, because it is the one that can flip between current and backlogged inside a single year. In November the Final Action cutoff is October 22, 2026. In practical terms, almost every pending F2A petition for a beneficiary born outside Mexico has a visa number available. Mexico sits at April 22, 2026. On the Dates for Filing chart F2A is current everywhere, and because USCIS designated that chart for November, a spouse or child of a permanent resident who is in the United States and eligible to adjust can file the I-485 now regardless of priority date.

For December, our expectation is a hold or a small creep forward, not a return to full current on the Final Action chart and not a retrogression either. The State Department has kept F2A on a short leash for most of 2026, moving it a month at a time, and the November jump in the other categories did not touch it. In our practice, the more useful question for a family is not where the December cutoff lands but whether USCIS keeps authorizing the Dates for Filing chart. It did for October and November. If it does again for December, the filing window for adjustment cases stays open for everyone. If it switches to Final Action Dates, the window narrows to priority dates before the cutoff, and Mexico-born beneficiaries with 2026 priority dates fall outside it.

What to watch: the USCIS chart announcement for December, which usually appears within a week after the bulletin; any Mexico footnote; any "U" (unavailable) flag, which would be a surprise this early in the fiscal year. Run the F2A wait time calculator for a country-specific estimate, and read our April 2026 report on F2A going current for context on how fast that window opened and narrowed. If the petitioning spouse has since become a U.S. citizen, the case leaves F2A entirely; our guide on what happens when the petitioner naturalizes explains the conversion and the problem it creates for derivative children.

F4: siblings of U.S. citizens

F4 is the longest common family line, and November gave it the biggest single move it has had in years: the worldwide cutoff went from October 22, 2011 to October 22, 2012. A sibling petition filed in early 2012 for a beneficiary born in most of the world is now inside the Final Action window. India, Mexico, and the Philippines did not move, and Mexico remains in April 2001.

For December, we do not expect a second year of movement. The State Department tends to make one large correction when it has numbers to allocate and then hold the line while it measures how many of the newly reachable applicants are documentarily qualified. The likeliest December chart keeps the worldwide F4 date at or within a few weeks of October 22, 2012, leaves India and Mexico flat, and gives the Philippines at most a token advance. Families with 2012 and 2013 priority dates should treat November as the signal to assemble documents, not as proof that December will reach them. Use the F4 wait time calculator for a country-specific estimate, and if a derivative child is anywhere near 21, run the Child Status Protection Act calculation now; a year of movement reaches many children who were protected only because the line was not moving. Our article on CSPA and aging out explains the formula and the one-year sought-to-acquire deadline that starts when the date becomes available.

F1: unmarried adult sons and daughters of U.S. citizens

F1 moved the same way: worldwide from January 22, 2020 to January 22, 2021, Mexico forward two weeks to September 22, 2008, and the Philippines unchanged at November 1, 2013. On Dates for Filing the worldwide column is February 1, 2021.

Our December read is flat to a few weeks for the worldwide column, and we would not be surprised by zero movement. Two warnings that matter more than the cutoff. First, an F1 beneficiary who marries converts automatically to F3, which in November is a decade further back; a wedding planned for the holidays can cost ten years of waiting if it happens before the visa is issued or the adjustment is approved. Second, an F1 beneficiary whose petitioning parent is a permanent resident rather than a citizen is actually in F2B, and the categories do not move together. Confirm which petition you hold before you plan around any prediction.

F2B and F3: shorter notes

F2B went from August 22, 2019 to August 22, 2020 worldwide, with Mexico and the Philippines flat. F3 went from October 22, 2014 to October 22, 2015 worldwide, Mexico forward two weeks to July 15, 2001, and the Philippines flat at July 22, 2006. For December we expect both to hold or move by weeks, and we expect the Philippines columns to stay where they are until the State Department sees how November's worldwide demand lands. For the total wait that combines USCIS processing, the National Visa Center stage, and the bulletin, see our family sponsorship green card timeline and the green card processing time calculator.

Employment-based categories: reference only

• EB-1: current for most countries in November, with China at August 1, 2023 and India at February 1, 2023; the December watch item is whether those two columns hold.
• EB-2 and EB-3: worldwide EB-2 at April 1, 2025 and EB-3 at June 15, 2024 in November; India and China remain the columns that drive retrogression risk.
• Other Workers and EB-4: watch for unavailability flags later in the fiscal year; EB-4 and religious workers sit at December 15, 2022 for every country in November.

What to do before the official December bulletin

1. Confirm your category, the beneficiary's country of birth, and the priority date from the I-130 receipt or approval notice. The priority date is the date USCIS received the petition, not the date it was approved.
2. Check your date against both November charts. If you are already inside the Final Action window, you do not need December to be kind to you; the number is available now, and the only question is whether the consular or adjustment paperwork is ready.
3. If your date became reachable in November for the first time, pre-stage civil documents, certified translations, and the Affidavit of Support package. Our I-864 guide for 2026 lists what sponsors need and the 2026 poverty guideline thresholds.
4. Adjustment cases: file in November under the Dates for Filing chart if you are eligible, rather than waiting to see whether December is better. A pending I-485 keeps its place through a later retrogression; an unfiled one does not.
5. Consular cases: answer every National Visa Center request within the window it gives you. The State Department sets each month's cutoffs from the demand it can see, and a case only counts as demand once the National Visa Center has marked it documentarily qualified. An unanswered document checklist is one reason the cutoffs sometimes move less than families expect.
6. Recheck the Visa Bulletin hub the day the official December bulletin posts, which has been in the first or second week of November in recent years, and then watch for the USCIS chart announcement.
7. If a spouse, child, or sibling case just became current and you need a filing strategy, talk to an immigration lawyer about adjustment versus consular processing, and about whether a child needs a CSPA calculation before the window closes.

What we see in our practice

The families who lose ground after a jump like November's are rarely the ones with the oldest priority dates. They are the ones who stopped reading the bulletin because the line had not moved in years, and whose National Visa Center file has been waiting on fees, civil documents, or a police certificate that nobody told them to send. When a date moves a full year at once, that paperwork gap becomes the whole wait. The first thing we do with a sibling or adult-child case that just became reachable is pull the NVC status, not re-read the chart.

The second thing we do is run the Child Status Protection Act numbers for every derivative child. The CSPA subtracts the time the I-130 was pending from the child's age on the date the visa became available, and it requires the child to seek the visa within one year of that date. A year of movement reaches children who were protected only because the line was standing still. A family that waits for December to see whether the date moves again can let that one-year clock run while an older child's protected age sits at risk. Cases that are documentarily qualified now keep their place if December holds flat; cases that are still assembling documents do not.

Frequently Asked Questions

Will F2A be current in December 2026?

On the Dates for Filing chart it already is, for every country, and that is the chart USCIS authorized for November adjustment filings. On the Final Action chart the November cutoff is October 22, 2026 worldwide and April 22, 2026 for Mexico. Our expectation is that December holds close to that position. Nobody can promise it, and a tighter cutoff is possible if demand surges against the fiscal year's allocation. If your date is available now, filing now is the only way to lock in the window.

Which chart will USCIS let me use for the I-485 in December?

USCIS announces that separately, usually within a week after the State Department posts the bulletin. For October and November 2026 it authorized the Dates for Filing chart for all family-sponsored categories. Do not assume December will match. If your date is available only on the Dates for Filing chart, wait for the USCIS confirmation before filing, because an I-485 filed against the wrong chart is rejected.

My sister's F4 priority date is from 2013. Did November help?

It brought her a year closer. The worldwide F4 Final Action Date is October 22, 2012 in November 2026, up from October 22, 2011. A 2013 priority date is now close enough to prepare documents and watch every month, but we would plan around a wait that could still run a year or more, and considerably longer if your sister was born in Mexico, India, or the Philippines, none of which moved in November.

Why did the dates jump a full year, and will it happen again in December?

The State Department does not explain its monthly allocations, so any answer is inference. The pattern, a clean twelve-month advance in every worldwide column at the start of a fiscal year while the oversubscribed countries hold, usually means the Department has numbers to allocate and wants demand reported early. Our expectation is that December measures the response rather than repeating the move. A second year of movement in December would be unusual; a flat chart would not.

What happens if the bulletin retrogresses after I file?

A properly filed I-485 stays pending; USCIS cannot approve it until a visa number is available again, but it does not lose its place, and work and travel permits tied to the pending application generally continue. For consular cases, the National Visa Center holds the file until the date is available again. Retrogression is a delay, not a denial, which is why filing during an open window matters.

My child turns 21 in the spring. Does the November movement change anything?

Yes, and this is the situation that needs a lawyer soonest. The Child Status Protection Act freezes a derivative child's age using the date the visa became available and the time the petition was pending, and it requires the child to seek the visa within one year of availability. If November made your date available for the first time, that one-year clock may already be running. A month of movement can decide whether a child stays on the parent's case or needs a petition of their own.

Where do I find the official December bulletin when it posts?

The Department of State publishes the Visa Bulletin on its travel website each month, in recent years during the first or second week of the prior month. Our Visa Bulletin hub links to the official chart and explains how to read it. Treat every third-party prediction, including this one, as commentary until that official chart is posted.