F1 Advanced Five Months to February 2018. Family Categories Get Chart B While Employment Does Not. Here Is Who Should Act Before August.

What the July 2026 bulletin actually did for family categories

The July 2026 Visa Bulletin brought the largest movement in family-sponsored preference categories in several months. The number that stands out is F1 — the category covering unmarried adult sons and daughters (age 21 or older) of U.S. citizens. The Final Action Date for F1 advanced five months to February 1, 2018, across all chargeability areas including India and China. The Dates for Filing cutoff for F1 moved three months forward to January 1, 2019.

These are not incremental adjustments. A five-month advance in a single bulletin cycle is significant movement in a category that often creeps forward by weeks at a time. For people who filed F1 petitions in late 2017 and early 2018 — and there are many — this bulletin changed things.

July also brought forward movement in F2B (unmarried adult sons and daughters of lawful permanent residents) and F4 (brothers and sisters of adult U.S. citizens). Mexico and the Philippines run on their own earlier cutoff dates, which are not the same as the worldwide cutoff. But for applicants chargeable to most countries, July was a meaningful month.

Chart B is open for family. It has been closed for employment for three months.

There is a structural difference between how family and employment categories are treated in the July bulletin, and it matters for how people can file.

For employment-based applicants — EB-1, EB-2, EB-3, and EB-5 — USCIS has required Final Action Dates for adjustment of status filings for the third consecutive month. The Dates for Filing chart, which allows filing before the Final Action Date becomes current, has been unavailable for employment categories since May 2026. EB-2 India applicants, EB-3 China holders, and everyone else in employment categories must clear the Final Action Date before they can file I-485.

Family-sponsored categories work differently. For July 2026, USCIS confirmed that family-preference applicants can use the Dates for Filing chart. This is the standard arrangement — family applicants typically have access to Chart B when USCIS determines it can be authorized. For family applicants, Chart B is open in July. For employment applicants, it is not.

Who just became current under the Final Action Date

The Final Action Date controls when USCIS can actually issue a green card. With F1 Final Action now at February 1, 2018, the people positioned to receive green cards are those with priority dates before that date.

The priority date on a family petition is typically the date Form I-130 was filed with USCIS. If a U.S. citizen filed Form I-130 for their adult unmarried child and the priority date falls before February 1, 2018, and that child has a pending I-485, the case is positioned to receive the green card. If the I-485 has not yet been filed because the applicant was waiting for the Final Action Date — that wait is over. File now.

For those who are current under the Final Action Date and have a pending I-485: confirm with your attorney that the file is complete and that USCIS has everything it needs. Cases that have been sitting close to the Final Action Date can move relatively quickly once that date advances through their priority date.

The bigger window: who can file under the Dates for Filing chart

Chart B in the July 2026 bulletin expands who can act beyond just people with pre-February 2018 priority dates. The F1 Dates for Filing cutoff is January 1, 2019 — covering F1 petitions filed up through December 2018. Anyone with an F1 priority date before January 1, 2019 can file I-485 in July, even if the Final Action Date has not yet cleared their specific priority date.

Filing under the Dates for Filing chart means the green card cannot be issued yet. But the filing is valid and immediately triggers real benefits. Work authorization: a pending I-485 supports filing Form I-765 for an Employment Authorization Document under category c(9), which allows work for any U.S. employer without maintaining separate nonimmigrant status. Advance Parole: a pending I-485 supports Form I-131, which allows international travel and reentry without a valid separate visa. Status stability: the pending application continues while the case is adjudicated, independent of whether an underlying nonimmigrant status has lapsed.

For anyone with an F1 priority date between February 2, 2018 and December 31, 2018: July is the first month you could file. The Dates for Filing date was earlier in June. It moved to January 1, 2019 in July, opening a window that did not exist one bulletin cycle ago. The August bulletin will show whether that window stays open, narrows, or closes.

F2B and F4 also moved. Where those dates landed.

F2B — unmarried sons and daughters age 21 or older of lawful permanent residents — also advanced in July, gaining roughly two and a half months in the Dates for Filing chart. F2B is a slower category than F1, and the backlog stretches back years, but the July movement is real and opened the filing window further for people whose dates have recently crossed the F2B cutoff.

F4 — brothers and sisters of adult U.S. citizens — advanced approximately two months in both charts. The F4 Final Action Date reached January 1, 2009 for most countries, and the Dates for Filing cutoff moved to March 1, 2010. F4 carries the longest waiting times of any family preference category, with cases filed in the mid-2000s still working through the backlog. A two-month advance in a category where every month of movement represents years of real-world waiting is not nothing.

Mexico and the Philippines are on a different schedule

The five-month F1 advance to February 1, 2018 applies to most countries — but Mexico and the Philippines have their own separate cutoff dates in family categories. Both countries carry sustained, heavy petition volumes that push their individual cutoff dates well behind the worldwide benchmark.

If your petition is charged to Mexico or the Philippines, do not assume the worldwide F1 date applies to you. Check the official State Department July 2026 Visa Bulletin directly for the Mexico and Philippines-specific dates in the F1, F2B, F3, and F4 categories. F3 (married sons and daughters of U.S. citizens) carries the same caveat — Mexico and the Philippines maintain their own earlier cutoffs there as well.

What a pending I-485 gives you that waiting does not

For someone who has been in the F1 backlog for years, the ability to finally file I-485 changes the picture in practical ways. The EAD allows employment without employer sponsorship. Advance Parole allows international travel without abandoning the application. These are not abstract benefits — they are the difference between needing to maintain a specific nonimmigrant status and not needing to.

Assembling the I-485 package takes effort: a medical examination from a USCIS civil surgeon (Form I-693, valid for two years), an Affidavit of Support (Form I-864) from the U.S. citizen petitioner, civil documents including birth certificate and passport, and the USCIS filing fees. When I-765 and I-131 are filed concurrently with I-485, the fees for those forms are typically included in the base filing fee.

Filing under the Dates for Filing chart now positions the case to receive the green card the moment the Final Action Date advances through the applicant's priority date — rather than scrambling to assemble the entire I-485 package at that later moment under time pressure. Getting the application in now is significantly lower-stress than racing to file when the Final Action Date finally clears.

Do not wait for the August bulletin before acting on July dates

The August 2026 Visa Bulletin will release around July 20. Once it does, the July cutoff dates no longer govern new filings. If the August bulletin retrogresses F1 — pulling the Final Action Date back from February 2018 or the Dates for Filing date back from January 2019 — people who waited until after July 20 to act would find themselves outside a window that was open all month.

The July dates are active right now. Scheduling the civil surgeon appointment, gathering civil documents, and preparing Form I-864 all take time. For most I-485 packages, two to three weeks is the minimum realistic timeline from deciding to file to being ready to submit. Starting now gives a real margin. Waiting until the week of the August bulletin gives none.

This article is informational only and does not constitute legal advice. Family-based filing eligibility depends on your specific priority date, country of chargeability, the applicable chart for your category in the current bulletin, your beneficiary's current immigration status, and other individual factors. Consult a licensed immigration attorney before making any filing decisions.