

In your opinion, by which month range would I be recommended to apply? I don't want to risk not getting the green card and want to play it completely safe. In later months, would the visa bulletin page update to show which numbers they're currently looking into?

I was under the impression that interviews are scheduled starting October on a first come first serve basis, thus, my thinking was that I would be late applying in November. Plan B of sponsoring her once you have a green card makes no sense to me when you have a cheaper, faster, and easier option with plenty of time to do it. In the meanwhile, make sure you have plenty of evidence of your relationship as marriage after selection is usually closely scrutinized. And going by past years it’s unlikely your number would be current before then anyway, so you’d lose no time submitting “late” anyway. (Also: If you submit earlier on your own and then if case numbers happen to move surprisingly fast and you get invited to interview as single, that’s more complicated than getting an interview a month or two later than you otherwise might have.) If you submit in November, you could probably interview Feb/March if your number is current by then. November won’t be too late at all - you’ll still have plenty of time to get a visa submitting then.
