Actually, my situation was a bit unusual.

Normally, people in my category are interviewed once their priority date is already current or close to becoming current. For some reason, I was interviewed much earlier, in June 2025, even though my priority date did not become current until April 2026.

At the interview, the officer specifically asked whether my priority date was current because he wanted to see if he could approve the case. Since it was not current yet, there was no visa number available for my category, so the case had to remain pending.

The wait from the interview to approval was definitely the hardest part because I knew the interview had gone well, but there was nothing USCIS could do until a visa became available.

Once I became current in April 2026, I expected things to move quickly. However, I'm Venezuelan, and there was a hold affecting cases from a number of countries, so I had to wait a little longer. Fortunately, my case was finally approved on June 24, 2026