F4 Mexico Visa Bulletin: Why the Sibling Wait Is the Longest

If you filed an I-130 for a brother or sister born in Mexico back in 2005, that petition is likely still waiting. The August 2026 Visa Bulletin puts the F4 Final Action Date for Mexico at 08APR01 — April 1, 2001. That is not a typo. It is the oldest family cutoff of any chargeability area in any preference category. A Mexican-born sibling of a U.S. citizen faces the longest family-based green-card wait there is.

F4 Final Action Dates, August 2026 (verbatim)

Verbatim from the Visa Bulletin for August 2026, Final Action Dates. “C” = Current, “U” = Unavailable.

How far behind is Mexico, really?

Measured from the August 2026 bulletin, the wait behind each F4 cutoff looks like this. These are approximate years since each listed date — the cutoff itself is the figure that matters.

Approximate years since each cutoff date, measured from the August 2026 bulletin.

Why Mexico lags so far behind

Three structural facts drive the gap, and none of them are about you as an applicant:

• The family-based annual limit is approximately 226,000. Every family preference visa — F1 through F4 — must fit inside that ceiling. When demand exceeds supply, cutoffs slide backward in time.
• Each country is capped at 7% of worldwide annual visas. That per-country cap is what creates a separate, much slower Mexico column. Mexico’s family demand, especially for siblings, far outstrips its 7% share, so the line freezes at a very early date.
• F4 is a family-sponsored preference, not an Immediate Relative. Unlike spouses, minor children, and parents of citizens — who are not subject to numerical limits — siblings (F4) compete for a finite slice of the 226,000 total.

Mexico’s F4 demand runs into both the 7% per-country cap and the overall family ceiling at once. The result is a cutoff parked in 2001 while most other chargeability areas for F4 sit years closer to the present.

What 08APR01 means for your case

The Final Action Date is the date a visa number can actually be issued. If your priority date (the date USCIS received your I-130) is on or before April 1, 2001, you are Current for August 2026 and can take the final step. If your priority date is later, you wait for the cutoff to advance — and for Mexico F4, movement is slow and can slip backward.

The path after the I-130 petition

Filing the petition is step one. The USCIS fee for Form I-130 is $675, and USCIS reports a typical I-130 processing time of 10–16 months. Only after approval does the case join the F4 Mexico queue and wait for the priority date to become current. Because that wait spans decades, families often plan around the real possibility that the beneficiary ages out of dependent status, or that another relative might be able to petition instead.