F1 — Mexico

preference · Final Action Dates not published · Dates for Filing 1 December 2008 · August 2026 bulletin

In the August 2026 Visa Bulletin, F1 for Mexico has no Final Action Dates chart published this bulletin and a Dates for Filing cut-off of 1 December 2008. The page reports exactly what State published for this combination in this bulletin. This page carries the full published history State printed for this combination: 291 Final Action Dates bulletins back to December 2001, and 131 Dates for Filing bulletins back to October 2015 — every cut-off, every month it moved, and the exact text State printed in each cell. It reports what was published; it is not legal advice.

Source bulletin August 2026 U.S. Department of State, Bureau of Consular Affairs — Visa Bulletin. A work of the U.S. Government, in the public domain (17 U.S.C. §105). Every figure below is the one State printed, kept with its exact source text.

The August 2026 cut-offs

State publishes two charts for F1, and they are not interchangeable. Both are shown here as printed. Mexico has its own column because demand from applicants chargeable there exceeds the per-country limit, so its cut-offs are usually further behind than the "all other countries" column.

This is not legal advice This page republishes cut-off dates exactly as the State Department published them. It cannot tell you what will happen to your case, and being current in a chart is not the same as a visa being issued. Cut-off dates routinely stall, and they can move backward without warning. For advice about your situation, consult a licensed immigration attorney.

Final Action Dates

State did not publish a Final Action Dates figure for F1 / Mexico in the August 2026 bulletin — this month's source ( preference) carries only one of the two charts. This chart's published history will return once a bulletin carrying it is available again.

Dates for Filing

The chart that decides when an application may be submitted — usually the more optimistic of the two. It did not exist before October 2015, so its history is shorter by design, not by omission: 131 bulletins since October 2015.

Dates for Filing: when would a priority date be reached?

The cut-off to compare against The Dates for Filing cut-off in the August 2026 bulletin is 1 December 2008. A priority date earlier than that has been reached.

The date your petition was filed — it is printed on your I-797 receipt notice. Nothing is sent anywhere: this runs entirely in your browser.

Enter a priority date to compare it against the August 2026 cut-off of 1 December 2008.

Any estimate here is an estimate Estimate only. It projects the cut-off forward at its average pace over the trailing published bulletins and assumes that pace holds. It is not a prediction and not a guarantee: cut-off dates routinely stall, and they can move BACKWARD (retrogress) without warning. Not legal advice.

How fast has this cut-off actually moved?
Measured movement of the Dates for Filing cut-off over its trailing published bulletins. This describes what already happened. It is not a forecast, and it is not what any estimate on this page is computed from.
Window Bulletins used Total movement Average per month
Last 3 bulletins May 2026 – August 2026 3 of 3 carried a measurable move 61 days forward about 20.3 days forward
Last 6 bulletins February 2026 – August 2026 6 of 6 carried a measurable move 366 days forward about 61 days forward
Last 12 bulletins August 2025 – August 2026 12 of 12 carried a measurable move 914 days forward about 76.2 days forward

This table describes what already happened; it is not a forecast and it is not what any estimate on this page is computed from. A pace can be zero, or negative when the cut-off has been moving backward, and some windows have nothing measurable in them at all — a category that spent the window Current or Unavailable has no distance to average. A category State has stopped moving can also keep showing a pace from a window that closed years ago, which describes that window and nothing since.

Dates for Filing — the full published history October 2015 – August 2026 · 131 published bulletins · cut-offs from 1 April 1995 to 1 December 2008
Dates for Filing: F1, Mexico, October 2015 – August 2026 Dates for Filing for F1, Mexico, October 2015 – August 2026. 131 of 131 published bulletins carry a dated cut-off, ranging from 1 April 1995 to 1 December 2008. C 1996 1998 2000 2002 2004 2006 2008 U 2016 2018 2020 2022 2024 2026

Every published cut-off is on the line above; the table below lists every month it moved.

  • Published cut-off date
Dates for Filing — the 24 most recent of 47 bulletins in which this cut-off changed, newest first. Months in which it held steady are not listed: it held in 84 of the published bulletins. Direction is shown by the ↑ / ↓ glyph and the word, never by colour alone.
Bulletin From To What changed
August 20261 October 20081 December 2008Advanced61 days
May 202615 April 20081 October 2008Advanced169 days
April 20261 December 200715 April 2008Advanced136 days
February 20261 September 20071 December 2007Advanced91 days
January 20261 March 20071 September 2007Advanced184 days
November 20258 October 20061 March 2007Advanced144 days
October 20251 June 20068 October 2006Advanced129 days
July 20251 April 20061 June 2006Advanced61 days
April 20251 October 20051 April 2006Advanced182 days
October 20241 April 20051 October 2005Advanced183 days
August 20231 January 20031 April 2005Advanced821 days
July 20231 December 20021 January 2003Advanced31 days
November 20221 December 20011 December 2002Advanced365 days
July 20221 May 20011 December 2001Advanced214 days
April 20221 April 20011 May 2001Advanced30 days
March 20221 February 20011 April 2001Advanced59 days
January 20221 December 20001 February 2001Advanced62 days
December 20211 August 20001 December 2000Advanced122 days
July 202115 May 20001 August 2000Advanced78 days
June 20211 March 200015 May 2000Advanced75 days
February 202122 February 20001 March 2000Advanced8 days
September 20201 February 200022 February 2000Advanced21 days
August 20208 January 20001 February 2000Advanced24 days
July 202022 December 19998 January 2000Advanced17 days
Show the earlier 23 changes — back to October 2015
The remaining 23 bulletins in which the Dates for Filing cut-off changed, newest first, back to October 2015.
Bulletin From To What changed
June 20208 December 199922 December 1999Advanced14 days
May 20201 December 19998 December 1999Advanced7 days
April 202022 November 19991 December 1999Advanced9 days
March 202015 November 199922 November 1999Advanced7 days
October 20198 November 199915 November 1999Advanced7 days
September 20191 November 19998 November 1999Advanced7 days
August 201922 October 19991 November 1999Advanced10 days
July 201915 October 199922 October 1999Advanced7 days
June 20198 October 199915 October 1999Advanced7 days
May 20191 October 19998 October 1999Advanced7 days
April 201922 September 19991 October 1999Advanced9 days
February 201922 August 199922 September 1999Advanced31 days
January 201922 April 199922 August 1999Advanced122 days
December 20188 October 199822 April 1999Advanced196 days
October 20181 September 19988 October 1998Advanced37 days
July 201815 July 19981 September 1998Advanced48 days
May 201815 January 199815 July 1998Advanced181 days
April 20188 September 199715 January 1998Advanced129 days
March 20181 November 19968 September 1997Advanced311 days
October 20171 April 19961 November 1996Advanced214 days
May 20171 June 19951 April 1996Advanced305 days
October 20161 April 19951 June 1995Advanced61 days
October 2015not published1 April 1995First published

How to read this page

What a priority date is

A priority date is the date that fixes your place in the queue for an immigrant visa number. For most family-sponsored categories it is the date the petition was filed; for employment-based categories that require labour certification, it is the date that certification was filed. It is printed on the I-797 receipt or approval notice. Your priority date does not move — the cut-off moves toward it.

Congress caps how many immigrant visas may be issued each year, both in total per category and per country of chargeability. When more people want a category than the cap allows, a queue forms, and State publishes a cut-off date each month: the priority date it has reached. If your priority date is earlier than the cut-off, your turn has come in that chart.

Chargeability, and why some countries have their own column

Chargeability is normally your country of birth — not your citizenship or where you live. A country gets its own column in the bulletin only when demand from applicants chargeable to it exceeds the per-country limit; in the August 2026 bulletin those are China (mainland-born), India, Mexico and the Philippines. Everyone else is counted together in the column State prints as "All Chargeability Areas Except Those Listed", which is not a global average and not a worldwide figure.

The two charts are not interchangeable

Final Action Dates is when a visa can actually be issued or a green card approved. Dates for Filing is when the application may be submitted; it is usually the earlier and more optimistic of the two, and being past it does not mean a visa can be issued. Which chart U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services will accept for adjustment-of-status filings is announced by USCIS each month and is not decided by State or by this site. The Dates for Filing chart was introduced in October 2015 and does not exist for any earlier bulletin.

What Current and Unavailable mean

Current (printed C) means there is no backlog at all: every priority date in the category is being acted on. Unavailable (printed U) means no visas are being issued in the category at all that month — usually because the annual limit has been reached. Neither is a date, and neither can be compared to one, so this site never plots them on a date axis and never projects from them.

Retrogression: the cut-off can move backward

A cut-off is not a promise and does not only move forward. When more people apply than the annual limit allows — often after a period of rapid advancement draws in filings — State pulls the cut-off back to an earlier date. This is called retrogression, and it can undo years of progress in a single bulletin. It has happened 359 times across the whole published record this site holds. The largest on record is F3 for Mexico in August 2006, which moved back 12.79 years in one month. Retrogressions on this page are marked on the chart with a ▼ mark and listed in the movement tables with a ↓ glyph — never by colour alone.

Frequently asked questions

What is the F1 priority date cut-off for Mexico in the August 2026 Visa Bulletin?
The Dates for Filing cut-off is 1 December 2008. State printed that cell as "01DEC08". A priority date earlier than 1 December 2008 has been reached in the Dates for Filing chart. The Final Action Dates chart is not part of this bulletin's published source this month (see Source and method, below); this page will show it again once a bulletin carrying it is available.
What is the difference between Final Action Dates and Dates for Filing for F1?
They answer different questions and they are not interchangeable. Final Action Dates is when a visa can actually be issued or a green card approved. Dates for Filing is when the application may be submitted — it is usually the earlier and more optimistic of the two, and being past it does not mean a visa can be issued. This month's source publishes only the Dates for Filing chart for this combination, so only that figure is shown above. Which chart U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services accepts for adjustment-of-status filings is announced by USCIS each month and is not decided by this site. The Dates for Filing chart did not exist before October 2015.
What is a priority date?
A priority date is the date that fixes your place in the queue for a visa number. For most family-sponsored and employment-based categories it is the date the petition was filed with the government (for employment categories requiring labour certification, it is the date that certification was filed). It is printed on the I-797 receipt or approval notice. The Visa Bulletin publishes a cut-off date each month for each category and country of chargeability; if your priority date is earlier than the cut-off, your turn has come in that chart. Your priority date never changes on its own — the cut-off moves toward it.
Has the F1 Dates for Filing cut-off for Mexico ever moved backward?
Not in the published record this site holds. Across 131 Dates for Filing bulletins since October 2015, this combination has no backward move on record in this chart. That is a fact about the past, not a promise about the future: retrogression can happen in any category when demand exceeds the annual limit.
When will a priority date in F1 become current for Mexico?
Nobody can tell you that, and this site does not claim to. What can be measured is the pace: over the trailing published bulletins the Dates for Filing cut-off has advanced by an average of about 76.2 days per bulletin. The tool on this page projects the published cut-off of 1 December 2008 forward at that pace to estimate which bulletin would reach a given priority date. That is an estimate and assumes the pace holds. It is not a prediction and not a guarantee: cut-off dates routinely stall, and they can move backward without warning. This is not legal advice.
Where does this F1 history come from, and how far back does it go?
Every figure is the one the U.S. Department of State printed in its monthly Visa Bulletin, kept alongside the exact cell text it came from. This page carries 131 Dates for Filing bulletins back to October 2015. The Final Action Dates chart is not part of this bulletin's published source this month. The Visa Bulletin is a work of the U.S. Government and is in the public domain (17 U.S.C. section 105). No month is missing from the public record in that span.

Source and method

Every figure on this page is read from the U.S. Department of State's monthly Visa Bulletin — the August 2026 edition for the current cut-offs, and each bulletin's own edition for the history. The Visa Bulletin is a work of the U.S. Government prepared by federal employees in the course of their duties, and is therefore in the public domain under 17 U.S.C. §105. This site is not affiliated with, endorsed by, or connected to the U.S. Department of State or any government agency.

This page carries 131 published cut-off cells and 47 recorded changes across the chart published for it this bulletin. Each cell is stored with the exact text State printed for it (the 01DEC08 shown above is the source's own), so every figure here is traceable back to the bulletin it came from.

5 months in the December 2001 to August 2026 span are absent from the public record — March 2009, September 2009, October 2009, November 2009, October 2012. They are recorded as gaps and shown as breaks in the charts above, never filled in from a neighbouring month.

Data version visa-bulletin-derived-v1 · 292 bulletins, December 2001 to August 2026 · Next monthly bulletin. The State Department publishes one bulletin per month, typically mid-month for the following month; past bulletins are immutable once published.

Every category in the August 2026 bulletin →