Frequently Asked Questions

VisaGPS is a free set of no-signup tools for tracking the US immigration journey. It pulls together the public State Department Visa Bulletin and USCIS data into tools you can actually use: a Visa Bulletin tracker, a priority-date predictor, a processing-time estimator, a citizenship-test trainer, and a case-status decoder. Everything is built on data the government already publishes for free.

Because you should not have to hand over an email address to check whether your priority date is current or to study for the civics test. Enter your details, see the result. If you want bulletin alerts you can add an email, but the tools themselves work with no account and no funnel.

No. VisaGPS is an independent project. We are not affiliated with, endorsed by, or connected to USCIS, the U.S. Department of State, or any other government agency. We simply organize the public data those agencies release so it is easier to follow your case.

No. VisaGPS is an informational tool, not a law firm. Nothing here is legal advice and using the site does not create an attorney-client relationship. For advice on your specific situation, consult a licensed immigration attorney or an accredited representative.

Tastefully. A few pages link out to genuinely relevant services - immigration application help, document translation, study materials - and some of those are affiliate links, plus light display ads. We never sell your data and the links never change what the tools show you.

Solo developer. The site is maintained directly, so broken pages, stale figures, and bug reports get fixed quickly. Spotted something wrong? The contact page goes straight to the person who runs it.

The Visa Bulletin is a monthly report published by the U.S. Department of State. It shows which family-sponsored and employment-based green-card applicants can move forward that month, based on their priority date, preference category, and country of chargeability. It is the master schedule for the green-card queue.

Final Action Dates show when a green card can actually be approved or issued. Dates for Filing show when you can submit your application (or assemble documents at the National Visa Center) ahead of approval. Each month USCIS decides which of the two charts applies to adjustment-of-status filings, so always check which chart is in use.

The columns are countries of chargeability - normally your country of birth. Most countries fall under "All Chargeability Areas Except Those Listed," while high-demand countries (China, India, Mexico, Philippines) get their own columns because per-country limits hold their dates back. Your column is set by where you were born, not your citizenship.

Once a month. The Department of State usually publishes the next month's bulletin in the middle of the prior month. Dates can move forward, hold steady, or retrogress, which is why people watch it every month.

Directly from the public Visa Bulletins published by the U.S. Department of State. We organize the same official dates into a tracker so you can see month-by-month movement for your category and country at a glance.

Your priority date is your place in line for a green card. For family cases it is usually the date USCIS received your I-130 petition; for most employment cases it is the date the PERM labor certification was filed (or the I-140 if no PERM is required). You become eligible when the Visa Bulletin date for your category and country reaches your priority date.

Your priority date is current when it is earlier than the cut-off date listed in the Visa Bulletin for your category and country - or when that category is marked "C" for current with no backlog. Being current is what lets a green card be approved (Final Action chart) or an application filed (Dates for Filing chart).

Retrogression is when a cut-off date moves backward instead of forward, usually because demand in a category exceeds the annual visa supply. A date that was current can retrogress, which means people who were eligible may have to wait again. It often happens late in the government fiscal year.

It looks at how the cut-off date for your category and country has moved across recent bulletins and projects that trend forward to estimate when your priority date might become current. It is a statistical estimate, not a promise - real movement is set by demand, per-country limits, and government policy, all of which can change suddenly.

No. The predictor is an informational estimate based on past movement only. Visa dates can speed up, stall, or retrogress with no notice. Treat the number as a rough guide, not a date you can rely on for major decisions.

A processing time is roughly how long a given form takes from filing to decision at the office handling it. USCIS often reports it as the time within which most cases (for example, 80%) are completed, so it is a benchmark, not a promise for any one case.

They depend on the form type, the service center or field office, current workload and staffing, whether biometrics or an interview is required, and whether USCIS issues a Request for Evidence. Two people filing the same form in the same week can wait very different amounts of time.

No. They are an approximate snapshot to help you set expectations, not a real-time feed from your case. For the official current figure and the date your own case becomes outside normal processing time, check the USCIS processing-times page and your USCIS online account.

Once a case is outside the normal processing time USCIS publishes for that form and office, you can typically submit a case inquiry through your USCIS account. The estimator is meant to help you judge when that point is approaching - it does not file anything for you.

All 100 official civics questions from the 2008 version of the USCIS naturalization test - the version most N-400 applicants take. These questions and answers are published by USCIS and are in the public domain, so you are studying the exact material an officer can ask from.

During the naturalization interview, a USCIS officer asks up to 10 of the 100 questions out loud, and you must answer 6 correctly to pass. The test is oral, not written, so the trainer focuses on recall and recognition of the official answers.

Some answers depend on where you live or on current officials - for example your U.S. representative, your state's senators, or the current President, Vice President, and governor. For those questions you must give the answer that is correct for your state and for the time of your interview. Official lookups are linked from the USCIS site.

USCIS has used different versions over time, but the 2008 civics test is the standard one most applicants take. The trainer covers that 100-question set. Always confirm on the USCIS website which version applies to your case before your interview.

It is the 13-character identifier USCIS assigns when it accepts a filing - three letters followed by ten digits, for example IOE0123456789. The first three letters indicate where it is being handled (such as IOE for the electronic system, or center codes like EAC, WAC, LIN, SRC, MSC). You use it to look up your case.

It breaks down your receipt number - explaining the office prefix and format - and explains in plain English what common case-status messages mean, such as "Case Was Received," "Request for Evidence Was Sent," or "Case Was Approved." It helps you understand the status, it does not change it.

The decoder is informational: it explains receipt-number structure and status terminology. For the live status of your specific case, always check the official USCIS case-status tool or your USCIS online account, which are the authoritative source.

Read the official notice carefully - it states exactly what USCIS needs and the deadline. The decoder can explain what a status like "Request for Evidence Was Sent" generally means, but the notice itself, and a qualified attorney if you are unsure, are what you should rely on for next steps.

No. We do not rent, sell, or share email addresses with anyone, ever. The only thing we use your email for is the bulletin and case alerts you asked for. Full details are in the privacy policy.

Only when something you are watching actually changes - for example when a new Visa Bulletin moves your category, or a tracked case hits a milestone. There is no drip campaign. Every email has a one-click unsubscribe at the top.

My Tracker keeps the cases and priority dates you save in your own browser (device-local storage). It does not sync to our server unless you separately opt into email alerts, in which case we store only what is needed to send those alerts.

Google Analytics 4 with IP anonymization, and optionally Microsoft Clarity to see how people use the tools. No third-party advertising trackers, no cross-site tracking, no Facebook pixel. What you type into the tools is processed in your browser and is not sent to our server unless you submit an email form.

The tools run in your browser and we do not ask for sensitive identifiers like your A-Number or full receipt details to be stored on our servers. Anything you save in My Tracker stays on your device. We never collect Social Security numbers or government ID numbers.