Visa Bulletin Analysis
The September 2026 Visa Bulletin Just Dropped. Employment Dates Are Frozen and Family Dates Jumped.
DOS released the September 2026 Visa Bulletin on August 22. Employment-based priority dates are unchanged from August — EB-2 India remains unavailable, EB-1 India is frozen at October 2022, and DOS has warned EB-1 India could become unavailable before September 30. Family categories moved significantly. Here is what the bulletin says and what it means.
What DOS published on August 22
The Department of State released the September 2026 Visa Bulletin on August 22, 2026. This is the bulletin that governs I-485 adjustment of status filings and consular visa issuances in September — the last full month of fiscal year 2026 before the October 1 annual reset.
The headline story is two things happening at once. For employment-based categories, the dates are essentially frozen from August. No movement for EB-1, EB-2, or EB-3 in the chargeable countries where it matters most. For family-based categories, the Dates for Filing chart shows continued significant advancement — multiple categories moved forward by more than a year.
That gap between a frozen employment chart and a moving family chart is not unusual at the end of a fiscal year. It has a specific mechanical explanation, and it directly affects how you read September's numbers if you have any stake in an employment-based priority date.
Employment-based: the dates that did not move
Every employment-based final action date for India and China is unchanged from August 2026. EB-1 India sits at October 15, 2022. EB-1 China sits at July 1, 2023. EB-2 India is unavailable. EB-2 China is at September 1, 2021. EB-3 India is at January 1, 2014. EB-3 rest of world moved to September 1, 2024 — a one-month advance, and the only employment-based movement in the chart that affects a broad set of filers. EB-4 advanced two months to December 15, 2022 for all countries.
The thing to understand about employment-based dates in August and September is that they almost never move at the end of the fiscal year. Visa numbers are finite — the annual cap for employment-based visas is 140,000 per fiscal year, and that pool gets drawn down through the year. By the time September arrives, the numbers available for many categories are near exhaustion, and DOS holds the dates back to avoid committing to approvals it cannot fulfill before the October 1 reset. Movement happens early in the fiscal year, not at the end.
The forum prediction that September would bring a surprise advance for EB-1 India or EB-3 ROW did not materialize — and that is not surprising. End-of-year date movement for oversubscribed categories is rare precisely because there is nothing left to move them with.
EB-2 India unavailable — what that actually blocks right now
EB-2 India went unavailable in the August 2026 Visa Bulletin, and September brings no change. India's prorated per-country share of the EB-2 employment-based category for fiscal year 2026 is exhausted. That is not a judgment about the size of India's backlog or how many people are waiting — it is a simple arithmetic fact. The numbers allocated to India in EB-2 for FY2026 have been used.
The practical consequence is immediate and hard. USCIS cannot approve pending I-485 adjustment of status applications for EB-2 India, regardless of when the application was filed or how early the priority date is. U.S. consulates abroad cannot issue EB-2 immigrant visas to India-chargeable applicants. This applies to EB-2 PERM cases and to EB-2 National Interest Waiver cases alike. No exception exists for premium processing, for how long a case has been pending, or for how close a priority date is to the cutoff.
The reset happens October 1. When FY2027 begins, DOS has projected the EB-2 India final action date is expected to advance to approximately July 15, 2014 or earlier. That will not help anyone waiting for a case approval right now — the wait is the wait — but it explains why the pattern of unavailability every fiscal year end is not a permanent condition. It is an annual exhaustion of a capped allocation that resets each fall.
EB-1 India: the date that might not survive September 30
The September bulletin carries a specific warning about EB-1 India. DOS has stated that continued demand and high number use may make it necessary to retrogress the EB-1 final action date for India, or make the category unavailable entirely, before September 30. That warning is not hypothetical language — it is DOS's way of telling the market that the numbers are close to exhaustion and the date could move backward or go unavailable on short notice.
EB-1 India is currently at October 15, 2022. EB-1 covers priority workers: people with extraordinary ability, outstanding professors and researchers, and certain multinational executives and managers. The I-140 approval category does not require PERM labor certification, which has made EB-1A a popular self-petition route for people stuck in the EB-2 India backlog. That shift in demand over the past few years means EB-1 India is drawing down faster than DOS once projected.
A retrogression before September 30 would mean that people with priority dates currently covered by October 15, 2022 could not be approved until the FY2027 reset. An unavailability notice would do the same thing, more abruptly. Both outcomes are temporary — October 1 resets the allocation — but if you have a pending I-485 for EB-1 India and your attorney has been counting on an approval before September, that approval is now uncertain in a way September's bulletin makes explicit. EB-5 Unreserved for India and China carries similar end-of-year pressure.
Family categories moved — by a lot
While employment dates froze, family-based categories in the Dates for Filing chart moved substantially. F1 — unmarried adult children of U.S. citizens — advanced to February 1, 2020. F2A — spouses and unmarried children under 21 of lawful permanent residents — remains current for all chargeability areas. F2B — unmarried adult children of permanent residents — advanced to September 1, 2019. F3 — married adult children of U.S. citizens — advanced to November 1, 2014. F4 — siblings of adult U.S. citizens — advanced to November 1, 2011.
The advances in F3 and F4 are particularly large. Those categories have historically moved in increments of weeks, not months. A jump of more than a year in a single bulletin reflects a combination of increased visa number availability and DOS recalibrating expectations about the backlog depth in those categories. For F2B applicants from most countries, the advance to September 2019 means people who filed a family petition for an unmarried child of a permanent resident around 2019 are now in the filing window.
It is worth saying plainly: the Dates for Filing chart does not tell you when your green card will be approved. It tells you when you are eligible to file the I-485 package. Filing gets you an interim work permit, a travel document, and a biometrics appointment. Approval — the actual green card — still requires a final action date. The two charts control different steps in the same long process.
USCIS is not opening Chart B for employment-based
Each month, USCIS publishes a page specifying which chart applies to adjustment of status filings. For September 2026, USCIS has directed employment-based applicants to use the Final Action Dates chart — Chart A — not the Dates for Filing chart. The filing window that Chart B would have provided for employment-based categories is not available this month.
This is consistent with the recent pattern. When employment-based numbers are tight — as they invariably are in August and September — USCIS restricts to Final Action Dates to avoid accepting I-485 applications for which no visa number will be available in the near term. The practical effect for anyone with an employment-based priority date that is ahead of the final action date but behind the dates for filing cutoff is straightforward: you cannot file your I-485 this month.
Family-based applicants continue to use the Dates for Filing chart, which is why the F3 and F4 advances matter — they open a filing window that a large number of long-waiting applicants have been watching for. If you are family-based and your priority date just crossed into range on the September Dates for Filing chart, you can file your I-485 now, even though your final action date has not yet arrived.
What changes on October 1 — and what to watch before then
The fiscal year ends September 30. On October 1, 2026, FY2027 begins and employment-based visa number allocations reset. EB-2 India will come back from unavailability. DOS has projected the final action date will advance to approximately July 15, 2014 or earlier once the new fiscal year opens, meaning I-485 approvals for EB-2 India cases with priority dates in mid-2014 could resume in October — years closer to the present than where the date sat before the unavailability window.
EB-1 India and EB-5 Unreserved India and China — the other categories carrying end-of-year pressure — should also see restored availability in October. There may be retrogression before the reset if the numbers get fully exhausted in the next few weeks; there will likely be advancement after the reset once fresh allocations arrive on October 1.
The October 2026 bulletin, expected in mid-September, will set the opening priority dates for FY2027. That is the bulletin worth watching closely. If you are in an employment-based category that stalled or went unavailable during FY2026, the October bulletin is the first signal of how much ground you gain at the start of the new year. This article is informational only and does not constitute legal advice. Priority dates and chart selection change monthly, sometimes on short notice. Consult a licensed immigration attorney before making any filing decisions based on the September or October bulletins.