October 2026 Visa Bulletin: what resets Oct. 1

The State Department has not yet published the Visa Bulletin for October 2026. Its adjustment of status filing charts page at USCIS still carries the September decision, last updated September 1: Dates for Filing for family-sponsored cases, Final Action Dates for employment-based cases. This page will carry the October charts, and the USCIS decision that follows them, the day both are posted. Until then, here is what the October bulletin does that no other month's does, and what the department itself said to expect.

Why October is different

Immigrant visa numbers run on the federal fiscal year, October 1 to September 30. Section 201 of the Immigration and Nationality Act sets the worldwide level for family-sponsored preference immigrants by a formula that can never produce fewer than 226,000 visas, and sets the employment-based level at 140,000 plus any family-sponsored numbers that went unused the year before. Section 202 caps natives of any single country at 7 percent of the combined total and any dependent area at 2 percent.

For fiscal year 2026 the bulletin put those figures at 226,000 family-sponsored visas, at least 140,000 employment-based visas, a per-country limit of 25,620 and a dependent-area limit of 7,320. Four chargeability areas were oversubscribed under those limits: China-mainland born, India, Mexico and the Philippines.

When a category or a country uses up its share before September 30, the department marks it "unavailable" and issues no more numbers until the new year's supply arrives. USCIS puts the other half plainly on its visa availability page: when the new fiscal year begins on October 1, a new supply of visa numbers becomes available. October is the month the counters reset.

What the department said to expect

The July 2026 bulletin, Number 16 of Volume XI, is the most recent edition this desk has verified in full. It recorded four situations that October is expected to change.

EB-2 India was marked unavailable for the rest of fiscal 2026 after India's pro-rated limit in the category was reached. The department wrote that it is likely that in October the final action date will advance to at least the final action date announced in the May 2026 bulletin, while adding that the date depends on demand from Indian applicants and on the fiscal 2027 employment-based limit. The May 2026 bulletin put EB-2 India at July 15, 2014.

EB-5 unreserved India was likewise unavailable for the rest of the year, with the same expectation that October would restore at least the June 2026 date. The June 2026 bulletin put that category at May 1, 2022.

EB-1 India retrogressed to October 15, 2022 in July, from December 15, 2022 in June and April 1, 2023 in May, a move the department said was needed to hold number use within the fiscal 2026 limit. It warned that further retrogression, or unavailability, was possible before the year ended.

EB-2 China and EB-3 Philippines carried the same warning. Their July final action dates were September 1, 2021 and August 1, 2023.

The bulletin also explained why so many dates had moved forward earlier in the year. Immigrant visa issuance to nationals of certain countries fell after Presidential Proclamations 10949 and 10998, so dates for filing and final action dates were advanced across categories to use fiscal 2026 numbers on applicants from other countries. The department said retrogression could follow as demand caught up, and that categories could become unavailable before September 30 if annual, category or per-country limits were reached. For India's EB-2 and EB-5 queues, that is what happened.

What "at least the May date" means for a reader

If your EB-2 India priority date is earlier than July 15, 2014, the department's own stated expectation is that October's final action date will be at or beyond it. That is an expectation printed in a bulletin, not a promise, and the October charts decide it. Anyone with a later priority date is waiting to see how far past that floor the new date lands, which the department tied to demand and to the size of the fiscal 2027 limit.

The same reading applies to EB-5 unreserved India and May 1, 2022.

What to check the day the bulletin appears

1. The Final Action Dates chart for your category and country. That is the date that decides whether a visa can be issued.
2. The Dates for Filing chart. It matters only if USCIS accepts it for your group that month.
3. Paragraph 2 of section A, which states the fiscal 2027 family and employment levels and the per-country figure. That is the size of the year's supply.
4. Any category still marked "U". A category that ran out in fiscal 2026 should show a date again in October.
5. The USCIS filing charts page, which usually posts the October decision within days of the bulletin. The Visa Bulletin tracker records it.

The charts

Not yet published. The department's Visa Bulletin page lists each edition as it appears. When the October 2026 bulletin is posted, this section will carry the Final Action Dates and Dates for Filing charts for the family-sponsored and employment-based categories, with the movement against September for each of the four oversubscribed countries.