Green Card Update Brings Major Gains for Applicants – List of Changes - Newsweek

The October 2026 Visa Bulletin brings major gains for some green card applicants as new visa numbers become available for fiscal year 2027.

The biggest changes affect employment-based applicants from India.

Two categories that were unavailable in September have reopened, while the cutoff for Indian applicants in the EB-1 priority-worker category moved forward.

However, the bulletin is not uniformly positive.

Some employment-based categories covering most countries, Mexico and the Philippines moved backward as the State Department sought to keep visa use within annual limits.

Ricky Murray, a former senior United States Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) official, said that the most serious problem with the bulletin was its late release, which left affected applicants fewer than two days to submit applications and petitions to USCIS.

"That is unreasonable and in most cases impossible," Murray told Newsweek, noting that USCIS must receive the documents in September, rather than applicants merely mailing them before the end of the month.

There were nevertheless some "decent changes" to employment-based categories for applicants, he said, describing the overall picture as a mixture of "the bad," "the good," and "the curious."

The bad was that the final action date for National Interest Waiver applicants from the rest of the world, previously current, had dropped to January 1, 2025. The good was that India’s EB-2 and unreserved EB-5 categories had become available again after previously being unavailable.

"The curious is the entire DV section is missing on the October bulletin," Murray said. Although he cautioned that the omission did not reveal exactly what would happen, he added that it "cannot make those filing for the DV lottery comfortable that it will be around in 2027."

Adam Klein, a former DHS official and co-founder of Globali.ai, said the October Visa Bulletin was unusually late and showed uneven movement across employment-based categories, with some advancing while others retrogressed.

"What stands out is both how late it arrived and how uneven the movement is," he told Newsweek.

Klein added that the bulletin alone does not determine whether adjustment applicants can file in October, because USCIS separately chooses which set of dates they may use.

The State Department’s monthly Visa Bulletin controls when many family-sponsored and employment-based green card applicants can take the next step in their cases.

October is particularly important because the federal government’s new fiscal year begins on October 1.

Annual immigrant visa allocations reset at that point, allowing numbers to become available again in categories that reached their limits during the previous fiscal year.

That is why a category listed as "Unavailable" in September can reopen in October.

The changes can determine whether an applicant remains in a backlog, can submit documents or is eligible for final approval.

Movement forward generally benefits more people, while a backward movement, known as retrogression, can delay cases that have not yet been approved.

The bulletin has two separate sets of charts.

A Final Action Date shows when an immigrant visa number may be issued, or a green card application may receive final approval.

An applicant’s priority date must be earlier than the listed cutoff.

A Date for Filing can allow applicants to submit their documents before a visa number is available for final approval.

For consular cases, this may mean sending documents to the National Visa Center.

People seeking adjustment of status from inside the United States must check which chart U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services has authorized for that month.

A priority date is generally the date on which the relevant immigrant petition or labor certification was filed.

"Current" means no cutoff date applies to qualified applicants in that category. "Unavailable" means visa numbers are not authorized for issuance.

India’s EB-2 category, covering professionals with advanced degrees and people of exceptional ability, reopened after being unavailable in September.

Its October Final Action Date is November 1, 2013, meaning applicants with priority dates earlier than that cutoff may again be eligible for final approval.

India’s unreserved EB-5 investor category also reopened, with a Final Action Date of December 1, 2023. It had likewise been unavailable in September.

EB-1 India advanced from October 15, 2022, to February 1, 2023. The category covers priority workers, including certain people of extraordinary ability, outstanding professors and researchers, and some multinational executives or managers.

China recorded particularly large movement in the employment-based Dates for Filing chart.

EB-3, covering skilled workers and professionals, advanced from January 8, 2022, to April 1, 2024. China’s unreserved EB-5 filing date moved from March 1, 2017, to March 1, 2021.

There were setbacks elsewhere. The EB-2 Final Action Date for most countries, Mexico and the Philippines changed from Current to January 1, 2025. Applicants in those areas now need a priority date earlier than that cutoff for final approval.

The EB-3 Final Action Date for most countries and Mexico moved backward from September 1, 2024, to May 15, 2024. That retrogression narrows the group eligible for approval, even though some applicants may still be able to file if the separate filing chart permits it.

The F2A category, covering spouses and unmarried children under 21 of lawful permanent residents, recorded forward movement.

Its Final Action Date advanced from August 22 to September 22, 2026, for most countries, including China, India and the Philippines. Mexico moved from August 22, 2025, to March 22, 2026.

F2B Mexico, covering unmarried adult sons and daughters of permanent residents, advanced from February 15, 2009 to May 15, 2010.

The Philippines also recorded movement in the F4 category for brothers and sisters of adult U.S. citizens, with its Final Action Date advancing from August 22, 2007 to May 15, 2008.

Applicants should compare their priority date with the cutoff for their category and country of chargeability.

The priority date must be earlier than the listed date, not the same as it.

Those applying from inside the United States should also check USCIS’s October chart designation before submitting Form I-485.

Being eligible under a Date for Filing does not mean a green card can immediately be approved, while reaching a Final Action Date does not guarantee approval if other eligibility or processing requirements remain outstanding.

The October gains are significant, particularly for Indian EB-2, EB-5 and EB-1 applicants, but the retrogressions elsewhere show that the new fiscal-year supply remains tightly managed.

Cutoffs can move again in later bulletins as the State Department receives updated demand figures.

Newsweek’s reporters and editors used Martyn, our AI assistant, to help produce this story. Learn more about Martyn here.

Update, 09/29/2026 9:32 a.m. ET: this article was updated with comment from Adam Klein, a former DHS official and co-founder of Globali.ai.