Once foreign nationals decide they want to stay in the United States permanently and start talking to an immigration attorney or researching the process themselves, there is a pretty good chance the term “priority date” will come up. What this term means and why it is so important to figuring out the timing involved in a Green Card case can be confusing. There are often many questions surrounding how one obtains a priority date and all the timing issues that follow. This post aims to explain how the process works, although many people may prefer not to know how the sausage is made (if you will). Tracking the backlog of cases can be painfully frustrating—especially if a foreign national’s visa category is one that is excessively backlogged. But for those who wish to know the reason behind the delays, here are some of the most frequently asked questions.