Each month, the Visa Office of the State Department publishes, in the Visa Bulletin, the priority dates for that particular month for the various family and employment-based categories.
A priority date is a person’s “place in line” for a visa, meaning immigrant visas would be available for persons whose priority date is earlier than the cut-off dates listed below in the Visa Issuance or Final Action Date column. If your priority date was “current,” but later retrogressed before your immigrant visa was issued , you would have to wait until it becomes current again.
Caution: If your Final Action/Visa Issuance date has been current for more than a year, and you were notified by the NVC but did not respond, you could risk your case being canceled or terminated.