Visa Bulletin, May 2025

What this issue did

The state of this issue

Counted inside this issue alone, before it is compared with anything published before it.

• Final Action Dates: 44 of 75 country columns carry a cut-off, 21 are current and 10 have no numbers at all. The furthest-back cut-off is 15JAN01, in F3 for Mexico. The widest gap between two countries inside one category is 130.8 months, in F1: Mexico against All areas, China and India, with 1 country somewhere between the two. Current in every column: EB-5 Rural, EB-5 High Unemployment and EB-5 Infrastructure. Current in 6 country columns of EB-1 and EB-5 Unreserved, though not in their other columns. No numbers at all in any column of EB-4 and EB-4 Religious Workers.
• Dates for Filing: 54 of 75 country columns carry a cut-off and 21 are current; every column has numbers. The furthest-back cut-off is 30APR01, in F4 for Mexico. The widest gap between two countries inside one category is 137 months, in F1: Mexico against All areas, China and India, with 1 country somewhere between the two. Current in every column: EB-5 Rural, EB-5 High Unemployment and EB-5 Infrastructure. Current in 6 country columns of EB-1 and EB-5 Unreserved, though not in their other columns.

How far the filing chart runs ahead

Of the 44 country columns where both charts carry a date in this issue, Dates for Filing runs ahead of Final Action Dates in 44 of them. The widest lead is 44.6 months, in F2A for Mexico. The middle lead is 5.4 months and the narrowest 14 days.

Where this issue sits in the archive

This is issue 20 of 36 published here, in a record running from October 2023 to September 2026.

Of the 75 country columns on the Final Action Dates chart, a cut-off appears both here and in September 2026, the newest issue published here, in 39 of them. Every one of them stands later in September 2026 than it does here, so the record ends ahead of where this issue leaves it. The middle difference across them is 29 months, and the largest is 55.7 months, in F2A for All areas, China, India and Philippines. That compares two ends and nothing in between: it says where these columns stand in each of the two issues, not that the queue only ever moved one way. A column can finish later than it began and still have fallen back on the way, and the category pages count the backward steps an endpoint comparison cannot see.

Of the 75 country columns on the Final Action Dates chart in this issue, 8 advanced, 1 moved backwards and 66 stood still. On the Dates for Filing chart, 7 advanced and 0 moved backwards.

Everything below is measured against April 2025, the issue immediately before this one.

The largest advances

• F3 for Philippines advanced 6 months, from 22MAR03 to 22SEP03. Over the three issues to May 2025 it advanced 10.4 months, and over the twelve it advanced 13.7 months.
• F4 for All areas and China advanced 5 months, from 01AUG07 to 01JAN08. Over the three issues to May 2025 it advanced 5 months, and over the twelve it advanced 5.4 months.
• F4 for Philippines advanced 5 months, from 01JAN05 to 01JUN05. Over the three issues to May 2025 it advanced 13 months, and over the twelve it advanced 20.8 months.
• F1 for Mexico advanced 3.6 months, from 01JAN05 to 22APR05. Over the three issues to May 2025 it advanced 5 months, and over the twelve it advanced 42.2 months.
• F2B for Philippines advanced 0.6 months, from 22JAN12 to 08FEB12. Over the three issues to May 2025 it advanced 3.6 months, and over the twelve it advanced 3.6 months.
• EB-3 for India advanced 0.5 months, from 01APR13 to 15APR13. Over the three issues to May 2025 it advanced 4 months, and over the twelve it advanced 8 months.

Where the cut-off fell back

• EB-5 Unreserved for India fell back 6 months, from 01NOV19 to 01MAY19. Over the three issues to May 2025 it fell back 32.1 months, and over the twelve it fell back 19.1 months. Backward steps inside that twelve-month window: 2.

By country of chargeability

• All areas: 1 of 15 country columns advanced, median advance 153 days.
• China: 1 of 15 country columns advanced, median advance 153 days.
• India: 2 of 15 country columns advanced and 1 fell back; median advance 14 days.
• Mexico: 1 of 15 country columns advanced, median advance 111 days.
• Philippines: 3 of 15 country columns advanced, median advance 151 days.

Which chart applies for filing

Consular cases are approved against Final Action Dates. Which chart USCIS accepted for adjustment of status that month is published separately by USCIS and has not been transcribed here. How USCIS chooses the filing chart.

Every figure in this section is arithmetic on the transcribed tables: differences between two issues, runs of unchanged months, spreads between two countries in the same issue. The bulletin publishes no reasons, and none are supplied here.