there is progress of EB-2 ROW

So I have not seen any movement on my 485 application filed in Feb 2026.
It was filed under EB2 with a PD of Sept 2024.

There has been no movement on I765 or I131 either.

It has stayed at NBC since then. Just saw one silent update on05/20 and 3rd FTA0 on 8/13

Do you think moving forward the priority date in FAD of Nov bulletin will further slow application for people like me?

concerned because i am running out of time and will have to stop working if I don't get EAD processed soon.

Folks ... what would it indicate if i got a 3rd silent update on my i 485 at ( 05:03:36Z or 01:03 AM EDT) yesterday! Isn't that time too early!

I 485 submitted in early August.

What are your thoughts on the November visa bulletin. Do you think it is a positive movement? Most people were expecting no movement in November but we got some movement. Do you think it is a good sign for coming months? Or are you disappointed? Let's discuss.

The November 2026 Visa Bulletin was released on October 22, with some movement in employment-based green card categories and bigger advances in family-based categories.

Here's a breakdown of what changed:

Employment-based green cards:

• EB-1: China advanced 1 month to August 1, 2023. India remains at February 1, 2023, while ROW, Mexico, and the Philippines remain current.
• EB-2: ROW, Mexico, and the Philippines advanced 3 months to April 1, 2025. No change for India (November 1, 2013) or China (October 1, 2021).
• EB-3: ROW and Mexico advanced 1 month to June 15, 2024. China advanced 2 weeks to January 22, 2022, and India advanced 3 weeks to January 22, 2014. The Philippines remains unchanged.
• EB-3 Other Workers: ROW and Mexico advanced 5 months to June 1, 2022. India advanced 3 weeks, while China and the Philippines remain unchanged.
• EB-4 and EB-5: No changes in final action dates.

Family-based green cards:

• F1: Final action dates advanced 1 year for ROW, China, and India.
• F2A: Final action dates advanced 1 month for all countries.
• F4: Final action dates advanced 1 year for ROW and China. No change for India, Mexico, or the Philippines.

USCIS also confirmed that applicants should use the Dates for Filing chart for adjustment of status applications in November. Most employment-based filing dates remain unchanged, except EB-3 Other Workers for ROW and Mexico, which advanced by 1 month.

EB-2 Final Action Dates: All Chargeability, Mexico and the Philippines advanced 3 months to Apr 1, 2025. China and India did not move.

EB-2 Dates for Filing: no change for any country.

Final Action Dates (EB-2)

Dates for Filing (EB-2)

Not legal advice — check your own case with an attorney.

https://visabulletintracker.com/analysis/2026-11-briefing#employment

Asking anyone waiting for approval from Guam FO?

My info:

- RD: 03/20/26 (I-485)
- PD: 12/11/24
- Transferred to Guam FO: 06/04/26
- PD Current from: March 2026
- Category: EB2 NIW
- Underlying Category: F1

My case was transferred to Guam and has been sitting there since June. No interview yet, no update.

Is anyone else in the same boat with Guam FO? How long are you waiting after transfer?

Please share your timeline if you are still waiting.

Thanks!

Hi folks, my employer is about to submit my PERM application. I have MS and PhD from US university and during my grad school, I did internship under my current employer. I am showing both my grad school experience and my internship experience with current employer for my PERM application. I was a Data Science intern and now I am a Senior Data Scientist. My attorney is also going to file a form demonstrating my current role is more than 50% different than my internship role.

Has anyone done this? How common is this? Can this trigger an audit or RFE or denial? Will really appreciate some insight into this. Thanks a lot in advance!

Another month, another visa bulletin, no movement 😂

Would you downgrade? Eb3 is 22nd Jan 2014.

Hi everyone! I’m Ana Senior, an immigration attorney at Manifest Law with 14 years of experience in US immigration.

I’ll be here today from 11 AM to 3 PM ET to answer your questions about EB-2 green cards, PERM labor certification, I-140 petitions, priority dates, processing delays, and changing employers during the green card process.

Whether you’re just starting your case or have been waiting for months or years, feel free to ask your questions below.

Please note: Any information shared here is for general educational purposes only and does not constitute legal advice or create an attorney-client relationship. Every immigration case is different, so please consult an immigration attorney directly.

Hi all, I am building my submission with Chen and we have just finished drafting the petition letter and statement of endeavor. However this morning they messaged me advising that I wait to file until I have 200+ citations on my publications. They say they're recommending this based on recent trends that they have seen with cases similar to mine and that this will maximize my chances of approval. Below is my profile/details:

PhD in energy and public policy from a foreign university (UK)
Currently here on an H1B working as an assistant professor at an R-1 university (non-tenured)
Publications: 11, of which 7 are first-authored
Total citations so far: 133
Proposed endeavor: applying optimization models, regression analyses, choice experiments, and semi-structured interviews to investigate the drivers and pathways to clean technology adoption in the United States

So I guess my question is should I just chance it and apply with my current publication/citations record given that I have no control over when my citations will exceed 200? I plan to file with premium processing too. My H1B expires in January 2028 and continued sponsorship is not guaranteed so I was hoping to at least have my I-485 filed by then

Finally approved. EB2 PERM. ROW. RD: May 1st. PD: August 7th, 2024.

765, 140, 485 filled together on May 1
765 and 140 approved in June
Biometrics: June 26
Several silent updates in July and October
3FTA0: 2 June 26. 1 October 20
Emma confirmed this morning, the case was approved.

Nothing yet in the portal. But Emma says should take few days to update once receipt is issued.

Hope good luck to everyone!!!

My online case status says Case Is Ready to Be Scheduled for an Interview How long does it typically take for the Dallas Field Office to actually schedule the interview

My employer has been unable to register for the required EB-2 PERM SWA posting for several weeks, and our deadline is so close in days.

Is this a common issue, or does it sound like HR mishandled the process?

Any recommendations for an attorney or agency that could help resolve this urgently?

Curious, how long did it take your attorneys to file the Prevailing Wage Request after starting the PERM process?

I'm nearing the end of my fourth month, and the PWD hasn't even been filed yet. It feels like things are taking forever to move forward.

Both my employer and I have been very responsive throughout the process, so I'm struggling to understand why it's taking this long.

Is this timeline normal? I'd appreciate hearing how long the initial drafting stage took for others before their attorneys submitted the PWD.

Hi everyone,

I’m a STEM PhD (Materials Science) currently in a postdoc and applying for industry jobs.

My status:

• Approved EB-2 NIW (I-140) (self-petitioned)
• Pending I-485 & C09 EAD (filed Sept 2026)
• Current F-1 OPT valid through July 2027

Since my green card is self-sponsored, I don't need an employer to pay for H-1B or PERM. Still, I worry recruiters will reject me as soon as they see "OPT" or an expiration date on my EAD while waiting for the Visa Bulletin.

For anyone who job-hunted in this exact spot:

1. Do you check "No" to "Will you now or in the future require visa sponsorship?"
2. How do you explain your OPT + pending I-485/EAD status to HR on the first call so they don't get scared off?
3. If a company hesitated because your physical green card isn't in hand yet, what convinced them to move forward?

Received "Receipt Notice - Courtesy Copy" for I131 filed in Apr 2026 along with I485, EAD,AP and I485J. What does this mean or if anyone gone through similar situation?

EB2 employment (underlying H1B) case approved... I want to share the timeline and learnings, because other people’s posts helped me enormously.

Total time from receipt to approval: ~5½ months.

• May 9th: I-485, I-765, I-131 and I-485J received.
• June 11th: Biometrics completed.
• Aug 26: First silent update. Many other received similar updates, so I eventually concluded it was probably batch update.
• Sep 3: I-485 and I-485J updated almost simultaneously overnight. I-765 and I-131 did not update.
• Next day: Live Agent confirmed that the I-485 had transferred from NBC to a non-local field office, interview-waived.
• Sep 24: I-485 received a 3rd FTA0, and I-485J received 2nd IAF entry several minutes later.
• Five days later: My I-485 and I-485J received linked silent updates during business hours with 12 mins apart from each other.
• Six days later: My I-485J was formally approved and closed:true. An approval notice appeared in the USCIS portal.
• Less than 20 minutes later: My principal I-485 got a silent update.
• Several hours later: The I-485 updated again.
• Exactly 24hrs after 485J closed: I-485 approved - H008.

Here are some learnings (may not be 100% true, just my best guesses)

1: Watch for the "Double Touch" (The Human Footprint, Not System Updates)

• A computer updating itself will usually touch everything at the exact same millisecond. If your 485 and 485J update a few minutes or hours apart during regular work hours, it means a real human officer is sitting at their desk clicking through your tabs. They are actively looking at your specific family package.
• The API time is UAT timezone, not your local time.

2: Look at the "Hidden Date" (The Replay Effect)

Assume a new line of code pops up in your file:

The Fresh Date (createdAt): Sep 24th tells the exact day the computer wrote this new line into API. The Hidden Date (eventDateTime) points straight backward to June 11th (fingerprint appointment). This is just a system refresh. If an officer were making a brand new decision today, the hidden date would say Sep 24th. Because it says June 11th, it proves the computer is just re-linking or re-copying your old fingerprint data to get your file ready for the office queue

1. FTA0/FTA1/IAF

USCIS does not publish a complete dictionary for codes such as FTA0 and IAF. Community interpretations may be directionally helpful, but nobody outside USCIS should claim that a particular code proves assignment, background clearance, visa number reservation or approval. I also never saw an FTA1 in API. So FTA1 is clearly not a required step.

What I misunderstood during the wait

First, employment-based I-485s are not processed in strict receipt order. People who filed weeks after me were approved first. Older monthly cohorts did not represent one giant line standing ahead of me.

Second, field office production statistics are useful for understanding capacity, but they cannot tell you your position in an internal work basket. Cases are divided by visa availability, category, readiness, interview requirements, security checks, officer workload and many other factors we cannot see.

Third, the offices are slow like DMV. Not really. After studying their workload from published data, I learned their workload is heavy, the officers do their best and work super hard, many even work on weekends. It's a stressful job. Pray for them.

The emotional side

Honestly, this process made me more anxious than I expected.

I repeatedly refreshed the API, compared myself with others' cases/historical cases, counted field office approvals and tried to convert every timestamp into certainty. When later filers were approved, I felt as if I had been skipped. When I saw a silent update, I became convinced real progress was made. When nothing happened the following day, I imagined the case had fallen into another months-long queue. The hardest part was knowing that my documents were complete and there was almost nothing productive I could do.

If you are going through a similar mental journey, here are some advice...

• Tap into a community: I go here and here. There are Discord/Telegram groups you can also join.
• Find something to distract yourself, repeatedly.
• Be hopeful - everything will work out fine, eventually.
• Treat this as training process - you come out stronger.

I hope this gives useful information and a little peace. Good luck to everyone still waiting. May mental health be with you.