Chargeability: which country your place in line is counted against

Birth decides, not the passport

The USCIS page on visa availability says the State Department allocates visas by preference category, country of chargeability and priority date, and that the law limits the share any single country may receive. Which country is “yours” is settled by the Immigration and Nationality Act, section 202(b): the foreign state of birth. A British citizen born in Mumbai is charged to India. A Mexican-born green card holder who became Spanish by descent is still charged to Mexico. Where you live now, the nationality on your passport and the country of your employer do not enter the calculation.

Why the column matters so much

Section 202 caps any one country at 7 % of the combined family and employment preference limits, 25,620 visas a year at the minimum levels, and dependent areas at 2 %, or 7,320 visas. Under section 202(b), inhabited lands that are not treated as separate foreign states are attributed to a foreign state specified by the Secretary of State. When demand from one country would pass that cap, the bulletin for October 2026 applies the prorating provisions of section 202(e) and prints a separate column. Four areas are listed this month: China (mainland born), India, Mexico and the Philippines. Everyone else, from Canada to Nigeria to Guatemala, reads the column called “All Chargeability Areas Except Those Listed”.

The table shows what that separation costs this month: the Final Action Date of each country column next to the worldwide date in the same category, and the share of bulletins since October 2015 in which the country had a date of its own.

The widest gap in the list is F3 for Mexico, where the worldwide date is about 160 months, or 13.3 years, ahead. That gap is the prize the exceptions below can open for a few families, and the reason the question “which country am I charged to?” deserves a careful answer.

The four exceptions in section 202(b)

The statute lists them in order. None of them is automatic; each has conditions, and each is applied by the officer who issues the visa or approves the adjustment.

• Spouse. If you are chargeable to a different country from your spouse, you may be charged to your spouse’s country, if necessary to prevent the separation of husband and wife, when your spouse is the one you are accompanying or following to join, has received or would qualify for an immigrant visa, and numbers are available for that country.
• Child. A child accompanying or following to join parents born in two different countries may be charged to either parent’s country, under similar conditions, when the child is not otherwise entitled to an immigrant status.
• Born in the United States. Someone born in the United States who is not a U.S. citizen is treated as born in the country of which he or she is a citizen, or, failing that, in the last foreign country of residence.
• Born in a third country. A person born in a country where neither parent was born and neither parent had a residence at the time of the birth may be charged to the country of either parent.

The spouse rule in practice

Most real uses are the first exception. Picture an EB-2 engineer born in Pune whose wife was born in São Paulo. On the India line the Final Action Date is November 1, 2013; on the worldwide line it is January 1, 2025. If she immigrates with him as his derivative and qualifies for her own immigrant visa, he may be charged to Brazil and read the worldwide column. On this month’s dates that is a head start of about 11.2 years for the same priority date and the same petition. The rule runs in both directions: a derivative may borrow the principal’s country as well as the reverse.

Family cases work the same way. A brother of a U.S. citizen, born in Zacatecas, waits in F4 Mexico at April 22, 2001. If his wife was born in Guatemala and immigrates with him, the worldwide F4 date of October 22, 2011 may apply to both. The quick check at the top of this page compares the two columns for any category and pair of countries.

Where the rule stops

The spouse must actually be immigrating. A spouse who is already a U.S. citizen, who will keep a nonimmigrant status, or who stays abroad without applying cannot lend a birthplace. A marriage that ends before the visa is issued leaves nothing to borrow. Numbers must also be available for the borrowed country, so cross-charging into another oversubscribed column can still leave you waiting.

The priority date does not change either. Cross-chargeability moves you to a different column of the same category; it does not create a new petition or a new place in line. If a second petition in another category is the better route, the EB-2 to EB-3 guide covers how a priority date can carry over.

Check the date in your new column

Once you know which country you are charged to, the next question is whether that column is current for your date this month.

The officer who issues the visa or approves the adjustment is the one who applies the rule, on the facts of the file. This page describes the rule in the statute and the bulletin; it does not say whether it applies to you. For that, a licensed immigration attorney or a DOJ-accredited representative should look at the documents. The per-country limit guide explains how the 7 % cap is computed each year.