The U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) and the U.S. Department of State announced that the Visa Bulletin is being modified so that foreign nationals who are waiting in the immigrant visa backlogs may begin their adjustment of status applications before their priority date becomes current.

In particular, instead of having only one visa priority date chart there will now be two charts per visa preference category.  These charts are labeled:  (1) “Dates for filing Applications,” which is the earliest date when an applicant is deemed eligible to apply for their immigrant visa; and (2) “Application for Final Action Dates,” which states the date when the immigrant visa can actually be issued.  This will affect foreign nationals who are waiting in the immigrant visa backlogs in that they will be able to submit their applications for consideration earlier than in the past.

These changes take effect beginning with the October Visa Bulletin.