U.S. Department of State releases October 2026 Visa Bulletin

The U.S. Department of State’s Bureau of Consular Affairs has released the October 2026 Visa Bulletin, marking the beginning of the 2027 fiscal year. The bulletin shows significant movement in several employment-based visa categories.

In the EB-1 category, the cutoff date for India advances to February 1, 2023, while China’s date remains July 1, 2023. For EB-2, India moves from unavailable to a cutoff date of November 1, 2013. China’s EB-2 date advances to October 1, 2021, but other countries, including Mexico and the Philippines, see a retrogression from current to January 1, 2025.

In the EB-3 category, China’s dates advance for both professionals/skilled workers and other workers. However, worldwide and for Mexico, the EB-3 skilled worker category retrogresses by 3.6 months to May 15, 2024. The EB-3 other workers category also sees retrogression for most countries except China, India, and the Philippines.

Additionally, the EB-5 unreserved categories show movement for India, which moves to a cutoff date of December 1, 2023, while most other countries remain current.