Why the F4 Sibling Priority Date Wait Takes So Long

An approved Form I-130 for a brother or sister is a place in line, not a visa. The F4 priority date, the date USCIS received the petition, decides when your sibling may apply for the immigrant visa, and for every country of birth that line is measured in years. The reason is arithmetic, not bureaucratic slowness: Congress fixed the number of F4 visas decades ago and demand has exceeded it every year since. This post explains the mechanics of the wait, how to read the Visa Bulletin for a sibling case, and what a family can do in the meantime. CLP’s sibling green card practice tracks these dates for clients every month.

Why there are never enough F4 visas

The Immigration and Nationality Act allocates a fixed number of family preference visas each fiscal year and divides them among four categories. F4, for brothers and sisters of adult U.S. citizens, receives its own share plus any numbers left unused by the higher family preferences. The statute also caps any single country at a small percentage of the combined family and employment preference total. Because the United States receives far more sibling petitions each year than the category can absorb, a backlog builds, and because the per-country cap applies regardless of a country’s population, siblings born in Mexico, the Philippines, India and mainland China face a separate, longer queue than everyone else. A visa number is charged to the country of birth, not citizenship or residence, though in some cases a beneficiary may be charged to a spouse’s country of birth if that helps.

How to read the Visa Bulletin for a sibling case

The Department of State publishes the Visa Bulletin monthly, usually in the middle of the month before it takes effect, and it contains two charts for family cases.

The Final Action Dates chart shows the cutoff for actually issuing a visa or approving an adjustment of status. The Dates for Filing chart shows the cutoff for the National Visa Center to start collecting fees and documents and, in months when USCIS says so, for adjustment applicants to file Form I-485. On each chart, find the row marked F4 and the column for your sibling’s country of birth. Most countries fall under “All Chargeability Areas Except Those Listed”; Mexico, the Philippines, India and China have their own columns. If your sibling’s priority date is earlier than the date shown, that step is open. A “C” means current, and a “U” means no visas are available that month. Our explainer on priority dates versus filing dates walks through both charts with examples.

Retrogression and why the date does not move evenly

Cutoff dates advance in uneven steps, stall for months, and sometimes move backward. That reversal is called retrogression, and it happens when the State Department has issued or expects to issue all the visas available for the category in that fiscal year. The federal fiscal year begins October 1, so dates often move most in the autumn and least in late summer. Nothing a family does changes the pace. Checking the bulletin monthly is useful; checking it daily is not.

One practical point: once a priority date has reached the Dates for Filing chart and the DS-260 has been submitted, that filing generally counts as the step the Child Status Protection Act requires even if the date later retrogresses. That matters for any derivative child, as explained below.

What your sibling and their family can do during the wait

• Keep addresses current with USCIS and, later, the NVC. The State Department can terminate the registration of a beneficiary who does not pursue the visa within a year of being notified that it is available, and notices sent to an old address count as notice.
• Start collecting civil documents and police certificates early, and renew passports before they lapse.
• Run the CSPA numbers for every derivative child well before the date becomes current, since the subtraction in F4 cases is often too small to help a child who was a teenager at filing. Our post on derivatives on a sibling petition explains the problem.
• Tell derivative children plainly that marriage before the visa is issued ends their eligibility.
• Consider parallel routes. A sibling with an advanced degree or exceptional ability may qualify for an EB-2 National Interest Waiver without an employer. A sibling who marries a U.S. citizen or permanent resident moves to a faster category. A sibling who wants to study here can apply for an F-1 student visa as long as the pending petition is disclosed and the officer is satisfied the student will depart on time.

When the date finally becomes current

When the Dates for Filing chart reaches your sibling’s priority date, the NVC invites the family to pay fees, file the DS-260 for each person, and upload documents. When the file is complete and the Final Action Date is also reached, the NVC schedules the consular interview, preceded by a medical exam with a panel physician. The whole consular stage is described on our family reunification page. If your sibling is in the United States in valid nonimmigrant status at that moment, an I-485 filing may be possible instead, but a sibling who has overstayed generally cannot adjust and must complete the case abroad.

If you have a sibling petition pending and want to know what the current bulletin means for your family, or whether a parallel route makes sense, a consultation with Capitol Law Partners can lay out the options. Schedule a consultation.

This article is for informational purposes only and does not constitute legal advice. No attorney-client relationship is formed by this communication.

Attorney Sena Sahin. Clear advice for individuals, families, and business owners.

Need help with this topic? See our F4 brother and sister green card page or schedule a consultation.