F2B: unmarried son or daughter, 21 or older, of a green card holder

Who waits in F2B

The resident parent with a grown, single child: a daughter who was 24 when her father got his green card, or a son who started in F2A and turned 21 before his number came. Both stand here. The Form I-130 receipt date is the priority date, and the beneficiary’s own unmarried children under 21 travel on the same case. Most F2B beneficiaries live abroad and finish at a U.S. consulate, so the State Department fees in the consular processing cost breakdown apply. A son or daughter already in the United States in a status that allows adjustment can file Form I-485 when the Date for Filing, September 1, 2019 this month, passes the priority date and USCIS designates that chart.

Two years without a move, then a leap

The worldwide F2B date read September 22, 2015 in October 2021 and exactly the same, September 22, 2015, in October 2023. Families who checked every month for two years saw nothing. It had reached November 22, 2016 by October 2025, and the bulletin of September 2026 carried it 598 days forward at once, to today’s August 22, 2019. The latest bulletin left it unchanged. F2B has retrogressed only 1 time since 2001 (about 26 months in January 2011): it stalls, but it rarely goes back.

Three columns, three waits

The last column is the one families watch when a resident parent is about to naturalize. Where F2B is ahead, conversion to F1 would push the case back, and the law lets the son or daughter request to stay in F2B; the F2B to F1 guide sets out the rule and the calculation. The F2B Mexico and F2B Philippines pages follow each line.

What ends or changes the case

• Marriage revokes the petition: residents cannot sponsor married children.
• The parent’s naturalization converts it to F1 with the same priority date, unless the beneficiary opts out.
• A child under 21 belongs in F2A, not here, and the CSPA age decides which side of 21 counts.

USCIS lists 53.5 to 56.0 months for this I-130 type at the National Benefits Center. For a priority date two years behind the cutoff, our model’s range held the real outcome only 31 % of the time, so the calculator may answer “no reliable forecast” for long distances.

F2B in the October 2026 bulletin

Every October since 2002

How our forecast did for this case