F3 — All other countries, China (mainland-born) and India
In the August 2026 Visa Bulletin, F3 for All other countries has no Final Action Dates chart published this bulletin and a Dates for Filing cut-off of 1 March 2013. 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. State printed the same cut-offs for China (mainland-born) and India as for All other countries in this category, so they share one published queue and one page rather than repeating the same figures 3 times. Across the 291 bulletins on record the two columns never differed.
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 F3, and they are not interchangeable. Both are shown here as printed. This page covers All other countries, China (mainland-born) and India because State printed the same figures for each of them — see which columns this page covers.
- Final Action Dates
Not published
Not part of the August 2026 bulletin's published source.
- Dates for Filing
1 March 2013
When the application may be submitted. From the August 2026 bulletin · State printed this cell as 01MAR13
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 F3 / All other countries 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 March 2013. A priority date earlier than that has been reached.
Enter a priority date to compare it against the August 2026 cut-off of 1 March 2013.
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?
| Window | Bulletins used | Total movement | Average per month |
|---|---|---|---|
| Last 3 bulletins May 2026 – August 2026 | 3 of 3 carried a measurable move | 83 days forward | about 27.7 days forward |
| Last 6 bulletins February 2026 – August 2026 | 6 of 6 carried a measurable move | 222 days forward | about 37 days forward |
| Last 12 bulletins August 2025 – August 2026 | 12 of 12 carried a measurable move | 222 days forward | about 18.5 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.
Every published cut-off is on the line above; the table below lists every month it moved.
- Published cut-off date
| Bulletin | From | To | What changed |
|---|---|---|---|
| August 2026 | 8 December 2012 | 1 March 2013 | Advanced83 days |
| May 2026 | 22 November 2012 | 8 December 2012 | Advanced16 days |
| April 2026 | 22 July 2012 | 22 November 2012 | Advanced123 days |
| January 2025 | 22 April 2012 | 22 July 2012 | Advanced91 days |
| November 2024 | 1 July 2011 | 22 April 2012 | Advanced296 days |
| October 2024 | 1 January 2011 | 1 July 2011 | Advanced181 days |
| August 2024 | 1 October 2010 | 1 January 2011 | Advanced92 days |
| July 2024 | 1 September 2010 | 1 October 2010 | Advanced30 days |
| June 2024 | 1 June 2010 | 1 September 2010 | Advanced92 days |
| May 2024 | 1 March 2010 | 1 June 2010 | Advanced92 days |
| July 2023 | 8 February 2010 | 1 March 2010 | Advanced21 days |
| May 2023 | 8 November 2009 | 8 February 2010 | Advanced92 days |
| August 2022 | 1 October 2009 | 8 November 2009 | Advanced38 days |
| July 2022 | 22 August 2009 | 1 October 2009 | Advanced40 days |
| July 2021 | 1 August 2009 | 22 August 2009 | Advanced21 days |
| June 2021 | 22 June 2009 | 1 August 2009 | Advanced40 days |
| February 2021 | 1 June 2009 | 22 June 2009 | Advanced21 days |
| September 2020 | 8 May 2009 | 1 June 2009 | Advanced24 days |
| August 2020 | 15 April 2009 | 8 May 2009 | Advanced23 days |
| July 2020 | 15 March 2009 | 15 April 2009 | Advanced31 days |
| June 2020 | 15 December 2008 | 15 March 2009 | Advanced90 days |
| May 2020 | 1 October 2008 | 15 December 2008 | Advanced75 days |
| April 2020 | 15 August 2008 | 1 October 2008 | Advanced47 days |
| March 2020 | 22 July 2008 | 15 August 2008 | Advanced24 days |
Show the earlier 21 changes — back to October 2015
| Bulletin | From | To | What changed |
|---|---|---|---|
| February 2020 | 15 July 2008 | 22 July 2008 | Advanced7 days |
| January 2020 | 15 May 2008 | 15 July 2008 | Advanced61 days |
| December 2019 | 15 April 2008 | 15 May 2008 | Advanced30 days |
| November 2019 | 15 March 2008 | 15 April 2008 | Advanced31 days |
| October 2019 | 22 January 2008 | 15 March 2008 | Advanced53 days |
| September 2019 | 22 December 2007 | 22 January 2008 | Advanced31 days |
| August 2019 | 8 September 2007 | 22 December 2007 | Advanced105 days |
| July 2019 | 22 August 2007 | 8 September 2007 | Advanced17 days |
| June 2019 | 22 June 2007 | 22 August 2007 | Advanced61 days |
| May 2019 | 22 April 2007 | 22 June 2007 | Advanced61 days |
| April 2019 | 1 March 2007 | 22 April 2007 | Advanced52 days |
| March 2019 | 1 February 2007 | 1 March 2007 | Advanced28 days |
| February 2019 | 8 January 2007 | 1 February 2007 | Advanced24 days |
| October 2018 | 22 September 2006 | 8 January 2007 | Advanced108 days |
| July 2018 | 8 September 2006 | 22 September 2006 | Advanced14 days |
| May 2018 | 1 September 2006 | 8 September 2006 | Advanced7 days |
| April 2018 | 1 December 2005 | 1 September 2006 | Advanced274 days |
| May 2017 | 22 August 2005 | 1 December 2005 | Advanced101 days |
| August 2016 | 1 August 2005 | 22 August 2005 | Advanced21 days |
| January 2016 | 1 April 2005 | 1 August 2005 | Advanced122 days |
| October 2015 | not published | 1 April 2005 | First published |
Which columns this page covers
State prints a separate column only for countries whose demand exceeds the per-country limit. For F3 it printed the same cut-offs for All other countries, China (mainland-born) and India, so they are one published queue and are kept on one page rather than repeated as 3 near-identical ones.
- All other countries — 291 bulletins on record from December 2001 · never differed from All other countries in any published month
- China (mainland-born) — 254 bulletins on record from January 2005 · never differed from All other countries in any published month
- India — 280 bulletins on record from December 2001 · never differed from All other countries in any published month
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 F3 priority date cut-off for All other countries in the August 2026 Visa Bulletin?
- The Dates for Filing cut-off is 1 March 2013. State printed that cell as "01MAR13". A priority date earlier than 1 March 2013 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 F3?
- 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 F3 Dates for Filing cut-off for All other countries 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 F3 become current for All other countries?
- 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 18.5 days per bulletin. The tool on this page projects the published cut-off of 1 March 2013 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 F3 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 45 recorded changes across the chart published for it this bulletin. Each cell is stored with the exact text State printed for it (the 01MAR13 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.