What's the priority date mean

[Basal 11]

 So last week on April 6 on the phone with the reviewer my case was completed. On the website was my case completed. I have called two times to ask about the interview because you know we are not very patient to see our lovers so Fast lol.  

 This morning I received an email letter confirmation of my case has been completed and we are waiting for the interview dates so my case is in the line for the interview date it's at the very bottom of the letter stated priority date April 25, 2016 what does that mean? Did they mean the 2017?i failed my case last year in march 

Edited April 13, 2017 by Basal
Forgot a number

[JFH 12,190]

The priority date is the date you filed the initial petition, the date you were officially logged into the system. 

 

For CR-1/IR-1 the date is meaningless because there is no waiting period for a visa to become available. It is used for categories where there are limited numbers and they have to wait for a visa to become available. 

[bcking 3,157]

What JFH said.

 

You will get an interview date as soon as your embassy has availability. They likely have a certain number per month for CR-1/IR-1. They are filled in order of who was completed first. Most embassies (not all) will release availability to NVC at the beginning of the month, for the next month. So it is the middle of April right now so you may need to wait until early May and end up with an interview in June. However Iraq unfortunately may have a longer wait time than that.

 

When you call you could ask if May dates are already full. A nice person on the phone may answer you. Though sometimes they will say "We can't tell you that" or even claim "We don't have that information" even though others will say they do. Very confusing and inconsistent. 

Edited April 14, 2017 by bcking