EB-4

What the record shows

Measured across the 36 issues published here, for this category alone.

How far apart the countries are

In September 2026 every country with a dated cut-off in this category sits on the same date, so there is no country spread to report.

How steady the movement is

The mean step is the average size of one month of movement, in either direction. A cut-off that averages sixty days a month but stands still half the time behaves nothing like one that advances thirty days every month, and the two figures together say which this is.

• All areas, China, India, Mexico and Philippines: 76.7 days of movement in an average month, standing still in 57 percent of them. The longest unchanged run was 7 months on 01JAN21, July 2024 to February 2025. No numbers at all for 6 issues, April 2025 to September 2025. Dates for Filing currently sits 0.6 months ahead of Final Action Dates.

The annual reset

The bulletin runs on a fiscal year beginning 1 October. Pooling every country across the 65 comparisons that fall in those two quarters, the October-to-December quarter advanced 8.9 days in an average month and the July-to-September quarter advanced 35.7 days.

Here the record runs the other way: the closing quarter moved more than the opening one, so a generous October and a flat August are not a rhythm this category has shown. Read a single month against this category’s own figures rather than the calendar’s reputation.

Backward steps on record

• March 2025: All areas, China, India, Mexico and Philippines fell back 17.1 months, from 01JAN21 to 01AUG19.

Questions this page answers

Why does EB-4 take so long?

Between October 2023 and September 2026, 35 months apart, the all-areas cut-off moved 47.4 months, a pace of 1.35 months of queue for every month of real time. A cut-off was published in 30 of the 36 issues in that span, so the figure covers the months in which one was published rather than the record as a whole. Between October 2025 and September 2026, 11 months apart, it moved 29.5 months, a pace of 2.68; a cut-off was published in 12 of the 13 issues in that span. The all-areas cut-off moved backwards in 1 of those 36 issues, so neither figure describes a steady advance. The bulletin does not publish a reason for the pace, and this site does not infer one.

Has EB-4 ever moved backwards?

Yes. Across the 36 issues published here the cut-off fell back in 1 of them, across 5 country columns, and 5 backward steps in all. The largest was 17.1 months, for All areas, China, India, Mexico and Philippines, in March 2025. A cut-off retrogresses when demand for a category exceeds what remains of its annual limit, and the numbers already promised have to be taken back.

Which country waits longest in EB-4?

No country waits longer than another here. Every country with a dated cut-off in this category sits on the same date in September 2026.

When will a particular priority date be reached?

The bulletin does not answer that, and neither does this site on its own authority. Past pace is a record of what happened, not a schedule. The history page offers a projection driven by a pace you choose, alongside the measured error of that method, which on this data misses by a median of several months even one year out.