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The U.S. Department of State has released its Visa Bulletin for October 2026, marking the start of a new fiscal year and bringing a fresh set of final action dates and filing dates that determine when hundreds of thousands of family-sponsored and employment-based green card applicants can move forward with their cases. Because October kicks off Fiscal Year 2027, this month’s bulletin carries particular weight, as it reflects the first allocation of numbers under the new annual visa limits, with some categories advancing meaningfully while a handful of employment-based categories for applicants outside the major oversubscribed countries have actually retrogressed.
Under the Immigration and Nationality Act, family-sponsored preference visas are capped at a minimum of 226,000 annually, while employment-based preference immigrants are limited to at least 140,000 worldwide each year. No single country can receive more than 7 percent of the combined annual total, a per-country cap set at 25,620 for FY2027, with dependent areas capped separately at 2 percent, or 7,320. Four countries remain oversubscribed and therefore subject to separate, often slower-moving cutoff dates this month: mainland-born China, India, Mexico and the Philippines, a pattern that has held consistently for years given the sheer volume of applicants from these countries relative to the per-country limit.
On the family-sponsored side, the F2A category, covering spouses and children of lawful permanent residents, continues to show the clearest divide between the “Final Action Dates” chart and the “Dates for Filing” chart this month. While final action for F2A sits at September 22, 2026, for most countries, the filing chart lists F2A as current, meaning eligible applicants can submit paperwork to the National Visa Center immediately regardless of priority date, even though actual visa issuance still depends on the later final action cutoff. That gap matters practically for families trying to plan, since it allows document gathering and early-stage filing to proceed well ahead of when a visa number actually becomes available.
The other family categories moved at a more typical pace. F1, covering unmarried sons and daughters of U.S. citizens, sits at a final action date of January 22, 2020, for most countries, though Mexico remains dramatically further behind at September 8, 2008, and the Philippines at November 1, 2013, reflecting just how much higher demand runs from these two countries relative to the rest of the world. F4, the category for siblings of adult U.S. citizens, shows similarly wide gaps, with most countries sitting at October 22, 2011, while Mexico’s F4 final action date lags at April 22, 2001, and the Philippines at February 1, 2016. These persistent backlogs, some stretching back more than two decades for Mexican and Filipino sibling petitioners, continue to represent some of the longest waits anywhere in the U.S. immigration system.
Employment-based categories tell a more mixed story this month. First preference, covering priority workers such as individuals with extraordinary ability, outstanding researchers and certain multinational executives, remains current for most countries, meaning there is effectively no backlog for the majority of applicants worldwide. China and India, however, continue to face separate cutoffs in this category, with China’s EB-1 final action date at July 1, 2023, and India’s at February 1, 2023. Second preference, covering professionals with advanced degrees, moved to January 1, 2025, for most countries this month, a relatively current position, though China’s EB-2 sits far further back at October 1, 2021, and India’s lags considerably more at November 1, 2013, underscoring the extreme demand imbalance facing Indian employment-based applicants specifically.
Third preference, which covers skilled workers, professionals and other workers more broadly, shows a final action date of May 15, 2024, for most countries, while China sits at January 8, 2022, India at January 1, 2014, and the Philippines at August 15, 2023. The “Other Workers” subcategory within EB-3 remains considerably further behind for most applicants, sitting at January 1, 2022, with India’s cutoff unchanged at January 1, 2014. One technical detail worth noting for EB-3 Other Workers specifically: under provisions tied to the Nicaraguan and Central American Relief Act, the annual numerical limit for this subcategory is reduced each year to offset earlier program adjustments, with that reduction capped at approximately 150 numbers for Fiscal Year 2027.
Fifth preference, the employment-creation category covering investor visas, remains current across most unreserved and set-aside categories, including the rural, high-unemployment and infrastructure set-asides that Congress created to direct investment toward specific types of projects. China’s EB-5 unreserved category, however, continues to carry its own backlog, with a final action date of December 1, 2016, while India’s EB-5 unreserved category sits at December 1, 2023.
Two additional administrative notes appear in this month’s bulletin. H.R. 6500, signed into law on September 2, 2026, extends the Employment Fourth Preference Certain Religious Workers category through December 11, 2026, keeping that program running under the same filing and final action dates as the broader Employment Fourth Preference categories. Separately, the bulletin reiterates guidance tied to the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2024, which affects certain current and former U.S. government employees abroad, along with surviving spouses and children of deceased government employees, applying for special immigrant visas, though this provision does not apply to Iraqi and Afghan applicants pursuing SQ and SI special immigrant visa categories.
For applicants and immigration attorneys tracking these numbers each month, the practical takeaway from the October 2026 bulletin is a now-familiar pattern: broad forward movement across most categories and countries as the new fiscal year opens, paired with continued, often severe backlogs for applicants chargeable to China, India, Mexico and the Philippines, whose per-country caps remain far too small relative to demand to clear within any reasonable timeframe under the current system. Whether Congress addresses the structural per-country limits driving these persistent disparities remains, as it has for years, a matter of ongoing legislative debate rather than near-term policy change. Continuing coverage of immigration policy developments and visa processing updates is available on Business Tech. The complete October 2026 Visa Bulletin, including full category charts, is available through the U.S. Department of State’s official Bureau of Consular Affairs website, and applicants can check current USCIS filing guidance through the agency’s official visa bulletin information page.
