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F2A: spouse or minor child of a green card holder

Enter the priority date from the I-130 your green card holder spouse or parent filed to see where it stands on both charts this month.

Checked by Radif Partners · Editorial policy · Method and past error

Where will you apply?

October 2026 bulletin

Current

Your date is before the Final Action cutoff: a green card can be approved this month.

Final Action DateSeptember 22, 2026
Date for FilingCurrent
I-485 this month (USCIS uses Dates for Filing)You can file
I-485 family, national average (August 2026)12.4 months
Government fees (paper filing, with work permit and travel permit)$3,005
How this was calculated
  1. Fees: I-130 $675 + I-485 $1,440 + I-765 $260 + I-131 $630 (USCIS Form G-1055, edition 10/07/26, and State Department visa fees).

Fee details, line by line

Estimate from public data, not legal advice. Your case may differ (cross-chargeability, CSPA, waivers). For advice, see a licensed immigration attorney or a DOJ-accredited representative. Not affiliated with USCIS or the Department of State. Method and past error

F2A covers the spouse and the unmarried children under 21 of a lawful permanent resident, and it is the shortest preference queue in the family table. The current Final Action Date for most countries is September 22, 2026, only 9 days behind the bulletin itself, and the Dates for Filing chart reads Current (C), meaning anyone with a filed I-130 is past that cutoff. Mexico has its own, slightly slower date of March 22, 2026; the Philippines share the worldwide date (September 22, 2026). The category was fully current from July 2019 to March 2023, then fell back by about 35 months in August 2023. A year ago the worldwide date was February 1, 2024. Our forecast for someone twelve months behind missed by a median of 5 months from 2012 to 2025, and its range held the real date 76% of the time.

The family this category serves

An F2A case usually starts with a marriage to someone who already holds a green card, or with a resident parent sending for children who stayed in the home country. The resident files Form I-130, the receipt date becomes the priority date, and the spouse’s own children under 21 can come as derivatives on the same petition. Marrying a U.S. citizen is a different track, with no queue: see the marriage green card costs.

Current for almost four years, then the August 2023 drop

F2A was listed as current on the Final Action chart from July 2019 to March 2023, 45 bulletins in a row, after sitting at August 22, 2016 in October 2018. The bill came in August 2023, when the cutoff lost about 35 months in a single bulletin, the largest of the 7 retrogressions recorded since 2001. Recovery has been steady: February 1, 2024 a year ago, September 22, 2026 today, with the latest bulletin moving it 31 days forward.

The filing chart is the real news

The Dates for Filing chart has shown F2A as current since April 2026. In a month when USCIS designates that chart for family cases, as it does now on its filing-charts page, a spouse in the United States who is eligible to adjust can submit Form I-485 and ask for a work permit while the Final Action Date catches up.

Mexico and the per-country rule

The Visa Bulletin states that 75% of F2A numbers are exempt from the per-country limit, which keeps Mexico close to the rest: March 22, 2026 against September 22, 2026, about 6 months apart. The Philippines use the worldwide date. Country of birth decides the column, so a Mexican-born wife of a resident from Texas waits on the Mexico line, wherever she lives today. The F2A Mexico page tracks that gap month by month.

Turning 21, naturalizing, marrying

  • A child who reaches 21 may keep F2A through the CSPA age calculation; otherwise the case drops to F2B, today at August 22, 2019.
  • When the resident naturalizes, spouse and minor children become immediate relatives and leave the queue.
  • A child who marries while the parent is still a resident has no category left: residents cannot petition for married children.

USCIS lists 52.0 to 56.5 months at the National Benefits Center for this I-130 type. At six months behind the cutoff, our back-test missed by a median of 3 months.

F2A in the October 2026 bulletin

USCIS asks applicants to use the Dates for Filing chart this month to file Form I-485.
CountryFinal ActionDates for FilingChange this month
All other countriesSeptember 22, 2026Current (C)▲ 31 days
China (mainland born)September 22, 2026Current (C)▲ 31 days
IndiaSeptember 22, 2026Current (C)▲ 31 days
MexicoMarch 22, 2026Current (C)▲ 212 days
PhilippinesSeptember 22, 2026Current (C)▲ 31 days
F2A All other countries: Final Action cutoff by bulletin month since December 20011997200220072012201720222002200620102014201820222026
Solid line: Final Action Date. Dashed line: Dates for Filing (since October 2015). A drop is a retrogression.

Every October since 2002

October opens each federal fiscal year, so it is the cleanest point to compare one year with the next.
BulletinFinal Action DateYears behind the bulletin
October 2002July 15, 19975.2
October 2003September 15, 19985.0
October 2004May 1, 20004.4
October 2005November 1, 20013.9
October 2006April 22, 20015.4
October 2007November 15, 20024.9
October 2008January 1, 20044.8
October 2009Unavailable (U)–
October 2010April 1, 20100.5
October 2011January 8, 20092.7
October 2012Unavailable (U)–
October 2013September 8, 20130.1
October 2014February 1, 20131.7
October 2015April 15, 20141.5
October 2016December 22, 20141.8
October 2017October 22, 20151.9
October 2018August 22, 20162.1
October 2019Current (C)–
October 2020Current (C)–
October 2021Current (C)–
October 2022Current (C)–
October 2023February 8, 20194.6
October 2024November 22, 20212.9
October 2025February 1, 20241.7
October 2026September 22, 20260.0

How our forecast did for this case

Back-test from October 2012 to October 2025, each month using only the bulletins known that month.
Distance behind the cutoffMedian error, our modelMedian error, “last 12 months” ruleRange held the real dateStart months testedPublished?
6 months3 months4 months67 %103Yes
12 months5 months6 months76 %101Yes
24 months8 months20 months70 %50No reliable forecast
48 months7 months578 months100 %6No reliable forecast

Questions people ask

Why is F2A so much faster than the other family categories?

F2A receives most of the second-preference numbers, and the Visa Bulletin explains that 75% of the F2A numbers are exempt from the per-country limit. Demand is also cut short each time a petitioner naturalizes, because the spouse and minor children then leave the queue as immediate relatives. The result is a line counted in months or a few years, not decades.

What happens to F2A if my green card holder spouse becomes a citizen?

The petition converts automatically: the spouse and any children still under 21 become immediate relatives of a U.S. citizen, with no Visa Bulletin cutoff at all. The priority date no longer matters for them. A child who is already 21 or older at that moment converts to F1 instead, because only minor children are immediate relatives.

Does an F2A child who turns 21 lose the place in line?

Not necessarily. Under the Child Status Protection Act, the child’s age is frozen at the age when the Final Action Date became current, minus the time the I-130 was pending, provided the child seeks the green card within one year. If that CSPA age is still 21 or more, the case moves to F2B with the same priority date.

Can a spouse in the U.S. file the I-485 now under F2A?

When USCIS designates the Dates for Filing chart for family cases and that chart shows the F2A cell as current, a spouse living in the United States in a status that allows adjustment can file Form I-485 without waiting for the priority date. The final approval still needs the Final Action Date. USCIS states the chart in force on its filing-charts page each month.

Keep going

F2A Mexico

Mexican-born spouses and minor children of green card holders: the one Mexico family line counted in months.

Child turning 21 (CSPA)

How the CSPA age is worked out, why the queue after approval still counts, and the one-year step families miss.

I-130 processing time

Relative petition times for all six I-130 categories at the three units that publish them.

Marriage green card cost

I-130 and I-485 filed together for a spouse in the U.S., with or without work permit and travel document.

Priority date

Where the priority date is printed, which filing sets it, and how to compare it with the Visa Bulletin cutoff.

Official sources and data

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Publisher of Visa Bulletin data, green card wait forecasts, USCIS processing times and 2026 filing fees

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Data for 2026, checked on