If you are applying for permanent residency through a family member other than a US citizen spouse or adult child or through employment via labor certification, your waiting period for residency may be getting longer.
The Department of State releases the visa bulletin on a monthly basis, which summarizes the availability of immigrant visa numbers (green cards) for that particular month in the employment and family preference categories.
To be eligible to file an employment-based adjustment of status application in May 2023, foreign nationals must have priority dates that are earlier than the Final Action Dates chart of the Department of State’s May Visa Bulletin.
For employment-based residency through labor certification, the cut-off dates as of May 2023 are:
For all other countries except China and India:
EB-2 Professionals: to February 15, 2022.
EB-3 Professionals and Skilled Workers: June 1, 2022.
Other Workers: January 1, 2020.
Family-sponsored applicants currently residing in the United States may file for adjustment of status once their priority dates become current, following the Dates for Filing chart according to the adjustment of status filing guidance published by the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS).
For all other countries EXCEPT China, India, Mexico, and Philippines:
F1 Unmarried children of U.S. Citizens 21 y/o and older 01JAN17
F2A Spouses and children under 21 y/o of permanent residents 08SEP20
F2B Unmarried children over 21 y/o of permanent residents 01JAN17
F3 Married adult children of U.S. Citizens 08FEB10
F4 Brothers and sisters of adult U.S. Citizens 01FEB08
For instance, if you are a U.S. citizen and you applied for your married child and their family, and you filed your petition on or before February 8, 2010, they can now file for adjustment of status in the U.S. so long as they are in lawful immigration status. In this case, the petition, filed in 2010, has been pending for 13 years, waiting for the priority date to be current.
You need to review the Visa Bulletin each month, find your category in the appropriate chart as indicated above, and see if your priority date is current. If you don't keep monitoring your case, your petition may be canceled by the National Visa Center or the Consulate. We will do some YouTube videos explaining this in more detail because this is an area of Immigration Law that many are unaware of, and they get their petitions canceled when they don't follow up on their petition.