October 2026 Visa Bulletin: EB-2 Loses Current Status, and a Filing Window Opens

The first bulletin of FY2027, in one table

The October 2026 Visa Bulletin is the first of fiscal year 2027, the month when a fresh year of immigrant visa numbers usually lets categories move forward. Several categories did advance, but the biggest change for extraordinary ability and national interest waiver applicants went the other way: EB-2 for most of the world, which had been Current since April, now has a cutoff.

The table sets the September and October final action dates side by side, with the October Dates for Filing chart that USCIS is accepting this month. A final action date controls when a green card can be approved; a filing date controls when an adjustment application can be submitted.

“Rest of world” means all chargeability areas other than China and India; Mexico and the Philippines have the same EB-1 and EB-2 dates as the rest of the world in October. September dates are from the September 2026 bulletin.

EB-2 for most of the world is no longer current

From April through September 2026, an EB-2 applicant born anywhere other than China or India could be approved as soon as the petition and adjustment application were ready, and in October that stopped. The final action date is now January 1, 2025, so an EB-2 green card, including one based on a national interest waiver, can be approved this month only if the priority date is earlier than that. The bulletin states that some rest-of-world employment categories had to retrogress to keep issuances within FY2027 quarterly and annual limits, and that the situation will be monitored. It gives no projection for when EB-2 might return to Current.

For NIW applicants the timing is awkward. NIW approval rates have been recovering, reaching 55.3% in the third quarter of FY2026 according to USCIS adjudication data, and the NIW data shows a queue of roughly 96,300 pending petitions. A rest-of-world applicant whose NIW is approved now faces a wait for a visa number that did not exist a month ago, measured by how far the priority date sits past January 1, 2025.

USCIS is accepting the Dates for Filing chart

The offsetting development comes from USCIS rather than State. Since at least May 2026, USCIS had required employment-based adjustment applicants to use the Final Action Dates chart, which meant an applicant could not file an I-485 until a green card could actually be approved. For October 2026, USCIS has announced on its adjustment filing charts page that all employment-based applicants must use the Dates for Filing chart instead.

What the filing window allows

An applicant who is in the US, otherwise eligible to adjust, and holding a priority date earlier than the filing date can submit an I-485 in October even though the case cannot yet be approved. For EB-2 rest of world, that filing date is March 15, 2026, more than fourteen months past the final action date. For EB-1 China and India it is July 1, 2024, and for EB-2 India it is January 15, 2015. A pending I-485 lets the applicant request work and travel authorization while waiting, and it sets up the job-portability protection that attaches after an adjustment application has been pending for 180 days.

Why it may not last

USCIS sets the chart month by month and can return to the Final Action Dates chart whenever it judges demand to exceed available numbers, as it did for the last several months of FY2026. An applicant inside the October filing window who is ready to file should treat the window as open this month rather than for the year.

India and China: movement, but short of the projection

EB-2 India came back from Unavailable, where it had been since July, at November 1, 2013. That is about eight and a half months short of the July 15, 2014 date the State Department had said the category would likely return to at the start of FY2027, a projection covered in the earlier analyses of the FY2026 shutdown and the October reset. EB-2 India applicants with priority dates before January 15, 2015 can file an I-485 under this month’s filing chart.

EB-1 India advanced about three and a half months, from October 15, 2022 to February 1, 2023, while EB-1 China held at July 1, 2023. Both sit at July 1, 2024 on the filing chart. EB-2 China moved one month, to October 1, 2021. For India-born applicants, the gap between EB-1 and EB-2 remains the central planning fact: an EB-1 priority date from early 2023 can be approved now, while EB-2 India is approving dates from late 2013. EB-5 unreserved India, by contrast, returned at December 1, 2023, well ahead of the May 1, 2022 date State had projected.

What this means for choosing between EB-1 and EB-2

For rest-of-world applicants, the October bulletin makes EB-1 the only employment-based preference with no visa-number wait, since EB-2 now has a cutoff and EB-3 has retrogressed to May 15, 2024. That raises the value of an approvable EB-1 petition. It does not change the approval data, which cuts the other way: USCIS approved 32.2% of EB-1A petitions in the third quarter of FY2026, against 55.3% for NIW. The subcategories with an employer behind them look better still, at 93.0% for EB-1B and 97.4% for EB-1C, and both are Current for the rest of the world.

The practical result is that category choice should still follow the record, with the queue as a second factor. A record that clearly clears the EB-1A final merits review now gains speed as well as permanence by filing there. A record better suited to the NIW is usually still better filed as an NIW, with a visa-number wait added to the plan. An applicant with a permanent research job offer or a qualifying multinational executive role should look hard at EB-1B or EB-1C, which combine high approval rates with no wait.

The priority date estimator projects waits from ten years of bulletin movement for anyone planning further out. For October itself, the useful number is the filing date, and the useful action is filing before USCIS decides whether to keep the chart open in November.