F4 — India
In the August 2026 Visa Bulletin, F4 for India has no Final Action Dates chart published this bulletin and a Dates for Filing cut-off of 15 December 2006. 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: 280 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 F4, and they are not interchangeable. Both are shown here as printed. India 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.
- Final Action Dates
Not published
Not part of the August 2026 bulletin's published source.
- Dates for Filing
15 December 2006
When the application may be submitted. From the August 2026 bulletin · State printed this cell as 15DEC06
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 F4 / India 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 15 December 2006. A priority date earlier than that has been reached.
Enter a priority date to compare it against the August 2026 cut-off of 15 December 2006.
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 | 0 days | about 0 days |
| Last 6 bulletins February 2026 – August 2026 | 6 of 6 carried a measurable move | 0 days | about 0 days |
| Last 12 bulletins August 2025 – August 2026 | 12 of 12 carried a measurable move | 14 days forward | about 1.2 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.
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 |
|---|---|---|---|
| October 2025 | 1 December 2006 | 15 December 2006 | Advanced14 days |
| June 2025 | 1 October 2006 | 1 December 2006 | Advanced61 days |
| April 2025 | 15 August 2006 | 1 October 2006 | Advanced47 days |
| January 2025 | 1 August 2006 | 15 August 2006 | Advanced14 days |
| November 2024 | 15 June 2006 | 1 August 2006 | Advanced47 days |
| May 2024 | 8 April 2006 | 15 June 2006 | Advanced68 days |
| April 2024 | 22 February 2006 | 8 April 2006 | Advanced45 days |
| April 2022 | 1 January 2006 | 22 February 2006 | Advanced52 days |
| September 2021 | 1 December 2005 | 1 January 2006 | Advanced31 days |
| February 2021 | 22 November 2005 | 1 December 2005 | Advanced9 days |
| September 2020 | 8 November 2005 | 22 November 2005 | Advanced14 days |
| August 2020 | 22 October 2005 | 8 November 2005 | Advanced17 days |
| July 2020 | 1 October 2005 | 22 October 2005 | Advanced21 days |
| June 2020 | 8 September 2005 | 1 October 2005 | Advanced23 days |
| May 2020 | 22 August 2005 | 8 September 2005 | Advanced17 days |
| April 2020 | 8 August 2005 | 22 August 2005 | Advanced14 days |
| March 2020 | 22 July 2005 | 8 August 2005 | Advanced17 days |
| February 2020 | 8 July 2005 | 22 July 2005 | Advanced14 days |
| January 2020 | 1 July 2005 | 8 July 2005 | Advanced7 days |
| December 2019 | 15 June 2005 | 1 July 2005 | Advanced16 days |
| November 2019 | 1 June 2005 | 15 June 2005 | Advanced14 days |
| October 2019 | 22 May 2005 | 1 June 2005 | Advanced10 days |
| September 2019 | 15 May 2005 | 22 May 2005 | Advanced7 days |
| August 2019 | 22 April 2005 | 15 May 2005 | Advanced23 days |
Show the earlier 11 changes — back to October 2015
| Bulletin | From | To | What changed |
|---|---|---|---|
| July 2019 | 15 April 2005 | 22 April 2005 | Advanced7 days |
| June 2019 | 15 March 2005 | 15 April 2005 | Advanced31 days |
| May 2019 | 15 February 2005 | 15 March 2005 | Advanced28 days |
| April 2019 | 8 February 2005 | 15 February 2005 | Advanced7 days |
| March 2019 | 1 February 2005 | 8 February 2005 | Advanced7 days |
| February 2019 | 1 January 2005 | 1 February 2005 | Advanced31 days |
| July 2018 | 1 December 2004 | 1 January 2005 | Advanced31 days |
| May 2018 | 22 June 2004 | 1 December 2004 | Advanced162 days |
| May 2017 | 1 May 2004 | 22 June 2004 | Advanced52 days |
| January 2016 | 1 February 2004 | 1 May 2004 | Advanced90 days |
| October 2015 | not published | 1 February 2004 | First 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 F4 priority date cut-off for India in the August 2026 Visa Bulletin?
- The Dates for Filing cut-off is 15 December 2006. State printed that cell as "15DEC06". A priority date earlier than 15 December 2006 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 F4?
- 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 F4 Dates for Filing cut-off for India 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 F4 become current for India?
- 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 1.2 days per bulletin. The tool on this page projects the published cut-off of 15 December 2006 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 F4 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 35 recorded changes across the chart published for it this bulletin. Each cell is stored with the exact text State printed for it (the 15DEC06 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.